THA secretary: Politicians in Trinidad behind search at my home

THA SECRETARY of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development Trevor James has alleged “politicians in Trinidad” were behind the police search at his home in Signal Hill, Tobago, on September 5.

He claimed they also seemed bent on using other arms of the State, including the police and Licensing Division, to destabilise the current Farley Augustine-led THA administration.

Cpl Makeal Seechan, of the Intelligence and Investigations Unit, applied for and was granted a warrant in the High Court to search for James’ electronic devices.

The court approved the warrant under Section 5 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act 2011.

At a news conference on September 6 at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, James said he believed the warrant stemmed from his confrontations with Trinidad-based licensing officers who were sent to Tobago to carry out road exercises in April 2023.

He was accompanied by Secretary of Settlements, Public Utilities and Rural Development Ian Pollard and Assistant Secretary in the Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development Terance Baynes.

James told reporters licensing and police officers came to his home, in NHA Development, around 6pm, to do what they said was a reinspection of his vehicle – TCL 3272.

He said police officers had a warrant to “seize electronic devices belonging to me believed to be housed at that residence in a reason to suggest that I acted improperly in my public office.”

James, whose wife was at home during the search, said the officers took one of his devices, an iPhone15.

Describing the warrant as “vague at best,” James said it “seems to suggest that this seizure of my devices is consequent to a belief that I somehow acquired a certification sticker on the vehicle, TCL 3272, and that possibly I may have evidence on the phone to suggest that I acquired the inspection sticker illegally.”

He said nothing could be further from the truth.

“All of Tobago will know that if there is one THA official who has been publicly at odds with licensing officers, it is the secretary with responsibility for the licensing office. And for some Master of the High Court to believe that somehow I am able to instruct licensing officers is at best preposterous.

“Therefore, the only reasonable conclusion I have been able to come up with is that this is an attempt to get into my personal life, seize my personal devices, to embarrass me, to suggest that officers from Trinidad do not report to the Division of Infrastructure and can do whatever they want to the secretary that has responsibility for the management of the licensing office in Tobago.

“That is the crux of the matter. It was an attempt by officers from Trinidad, possibly instructed by politicians in Trinidad, to undertake this action to say to Tobago that the people that you have selected are of no consequence to us and we can do to them as we please, expecting maybe that I would resist and get into a public tiff with police and licensing officers.”

He said he had since taken legal action.

“My lawyers met with me this morning (September 6). They will issue letters to the Transport Division and to the police.”

James said he had put “material” in the public space about the past executive council members colluding with contractors and public officers.

“Not once have the police issued a warrant to search any residence based on the material evidence I have put in the public space.”

James said he had also seen political opponents put up “lies and fake WhatsApp screenshots using my name.

“I have reported it to the police. Not once have the police effected any action on those who have reported such lies and those who have put those lies first in the public space. But you know when an election is close what happens.”

He said the search reflected the need to change the construct between Tobago and Trinidad.

“Because clearly, those who run the government now, they have no regard for the authority of the Fifth Schedule of the Tobago House of Assembly Act. The Prime Minister is on record several times to say that the minister in Trinidad is the minister for Tobago and Trinidad, and that they therefore can do anything they please in Tobago. This, fellow Tobagonians, we have to stop.”

James said the time had come to put people in the Parliament who can represent Tobago’s issues strongly.

He added Tobagonians also must stand up against the “tyranny of the PNM in Trinidad…and stand resolutely against this creeping dictatorship as is being led by the current Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.”

James, who is also the assemblyman for Scarborough/Mt Grace, said he feels he can change the status quo in the Parliament as an MP.

“I decided I must offer myself to the TPP (Tobago People’s Party) and to the people of Tobago as one of the candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections. The time has come when we need serious people in the space and certainly I will not tolerate this disrespect any further.

“We need to make the change in the Parliament and we need to do it now, or forever we will be doomed to fall under the repression that has always emanated from the PNM.”

Chief Secretary Farley Augustine joined the news conference briefly before attending a function with Chinese Ambassador Fang Qiu.

Describing the search as “extremely concerning,” he claimed “agencies of state are being used nefariously to handle the politics that the PNM cannot handle itself.

“That is not healthy for a democracy. That is almost what we see in states that are dictatorial in nature and it has no place in our democracy,” Augustine said.

He said, however, the situation was not new to Tobago politics.

“Every time Tobago rejects the PNM, we get this sort of response from them and from their national party.”

“The licensing office, the transport commissioner and their agents need to come clean and say to the public whether it is this matter (James' inspection sticker), of which is of no fault of the secretary’s, (that) warranted police and licensing officers disturbing the sanctity of his home and going, in the presence of his family, to take away his devices.

“The last time I checked, the secretary cannot give himself an inspection sticker. The last time I checked, the secretary – although he has powers over the licensing department, given that that is a department under the Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development – still does not have the authority to order a sticker for himself.”

Saying the episode has the “DNA of the PNM all over it," Augustine said the rest of the THA stood in solidarity with James and was ready to fight the matter to the very end.