Dennis labels Farley “Mr Don’t Know”

Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

PNM po­lit­i­cal leader An­cil Den­nis has ac­cused Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine of be­ing un­aware of ma­jor de­vel­op­ments af­fect­ing To­ba­go, in­clud­ing the in­stal­la­tion of a radar at the is­land’s in­ter­na­tion­al air­port and the use of lo­cal air­ports for mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ty.

Speak­ing at a Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment meet­ing in Sou Sou Lands, Den­nis said: “we have a chief sec­re­tary who we have to now call Mr. Don’t Know… the chief sec­re­tary doesn’t seem to know any­thing at all.”

Den­nis said Au­gus­tine on­ly learned about the radar and mil­i­tary air­craft af­ter pub­lic an­nounce­ments. “The fact that a radar was be­ing in­stalled right here on our is­land at our in­ter­na­tion­al air­port… he claimed again that he did not know,” Den­nis said.

He al­so ac­cused Au­gus­tine of on­ly dis­cov­er­ing the use of To­ba­go’s air­ports for mil­i­tary pur­pos­es through a press re­lease. “The two air­ports in this coun­try… were giv­en away for the pur­pose of mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ties. The chief sec­re­tary said that he did not know… he found out by a press re­lease.”

Den­nis de­scribed the radar as a mil­i­tary, not civil­ian, as­set. “The radar is not a civil­ian as­set… it is in fact a mil­i­tary as­set to serve mil­i­tary pur­pos­es,” he said.

He said the PNM would cam­paign in To­ba­go to de­mand its re­moval.