“Stand in line!”
That’s Oropouche East Member of Parliament Dr Roodal Moonilal’s response to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s threat of legal action.
Moonilal says “we are going by alphabetical order CEPEP, EMBD and now Rowley.”
But he said after being forced with withdraw statements linked to a document which he read into the Hansard of Parliament last Friday, he is now “compiling more information, with the intention of approaching the US authorities because I have no confidence in the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Moonilal’s statements in Parliament has prompted angry reaction from the Prime Minister who described his statements as “false and malicious” with a threat to sue not just Moonilal but those on social media who have repeated the comments and whom the PM has linked to the United National Congress.
Speaking to the Guardian, Moonilal said he had “no problem with Dr Rowley. He was not in Parliament and was not properly briefed. I never said he had a bank account or received money.”
He alleged that when the AG asked the Speaker to invoke section 48-6 of the Standing Orders of Parliament “calling on me to take ownership of what I said it was with the intention of them sending me to the Privileges Committee and perhaps having me out of the Parliament until 2020.”
Section 48-6 of the Standing Orders states ‘No Member shall impute improper motive to any Member of either House.’
But, he said, it was not his job to investigate matters “I simply raised it to bring it to the AG’s attention for him to investigate and follow the money.”