NTA calls for AG to be sacked over 'missteps'

National Transformation Alliance (NTA) general secretary Tim Teemal is calling for Attorney General Reginald Armour to be removed from office owing to “the number of missteps, and misadventures surrounding his brief but highly controversial tenure in office.”

He identified some of Armour’s “missteps” including the courts’ recent awarding of $20 million to the nine men who were freed of murdering businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman.

The State was ordered to pay them because it failed to defend a malicious prosecution lawsuit brought by the men. Armour said Naipaul-Coolman file “disappeared” from of the Office of the Solicitor General one day after it was served. Retired judge Stanley John has been appointed to investigate the matter.

Teemal claims the investigation was a way to distract people and convince them nefarious actions were involved.

He also noted Armour's missteps in the multi-million-dollar asset forfeiture case linked to the construction of the Piarco Airport terminal building in which a Miami Court affirmed the disqualification of Amour and a Miami law firm, which had already been paid about $30 million, from representing the State.

In that case, Armour downplayed his role as a defence attorney for one of the defendants in a case. An appeal court last week upheld a ruling that Armour and the law firm of Sequor Law remain disqualified from the matter. Another law firm has been retained by the state to pursue the matter.

“With the excuse of an impending appeal gone, a litany of mistakes, and an inability to take responsibility for them, even in the face of glaring evidence, the NTA urges the Prime Minister to do the right thing and remove Armour, who embarrassed our country internationally, and who has surely lost the trust and confidence of most of the citizens of TT.”