Moonilal: EMBD lawsuit is battle of AGs

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has described an Estate Management and Business Development Company (EMBD) lawsuit, which named him as one of several defendants, as a “political witch hunt” which will pit a former attorney general against a sitting attorney general.

Moonilal has named former People’s Partnership attorney general Anand Ramlogan as his attorney.

The former Housing minister is one of four people and three companies accused, in a lawsuit filed by the EMBD, of engaging in an elaborate scheme of bid-rigging, bribery and collusion which led to hundreds of millions of dollars being disbursed to five contractors just prior to the 2015 general election.

The lawsuit against Moonilal, former EMBD chief executive Gary Parmassar, former divisional manager at EMBD Madhoo Balroop, Andrew Walker and companies Fides Ltd, Namalco Construction and LCB Contractors was filed in the Port of Spain High Court on Monday and announced by the Office of the Attorney General in a media release.

Addressing a cottage meeting of the UNC Stars slate which is led by incumbent political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar at Macaulay community centre, Claxton Bay, on Monday night, Moonilal said he had been expecting the lawsuit for the past month and predicted Ramlogan would prevail over the combined might of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General Stuart Young.

“Today it came to our attention that the EMBD has indeed filed a matter in which they have named several defendants. In fact, they suing everybody in the world now but they have been brave enough to name me. Now I was waiting on this serving for about a month, finally they have delivered on a service and it is the worst service,” Moonilal said.

“So finally we have the showdown we waiting for – Ramlogan versus Al-Rawi and Young. I don’t want to say too much, but I want to tell you that we will win in the court house as we will win at the polls.

“This a political witch hunt, this is political persecution by Al-Rawi.”

Moonilal said while the EMBD could not deliver a single lot of residential or agricultural lands to Caroni workers over the past two years, it was now spending millions of dollars on legal fees.

And regarding the upcoming internal election, Moonilal said Sunday’s poll was not only to elect a new national executive but to send a message to the ruling PNM administration that the UNC membership was ready for the next general election.

Also addressing the meeting were deputy political leader candidates Jearlean John and David Lee.