By Sandra Chouthi
Special to Indo Caribbean World
Port-of-Spain - Eight-year-old Leah Lammy disappeared on February 10. Her cellphone was recovered and a man was charged with her kidnapping. She has not been found.
The accused, Salis Mack was taunted and jeered by a mob that chased after him on March 3 on his way to court to face a charge of kidnapping Leah. Mack’s court appearance was similar to the circus surrounding that of Sunil Ali, who was almost lynched while being taken to the same court, charged with the murder of another eight-year-old, Hope Arismandez. He appeared in court last May.
Ali was dead in prison within a day. It was determined that Ali was given the tools to kill himself.
Mack, 33, of King Sultan Avenue, Cunupia, was remanded in prison custody. As police escorted him to court, people mocked and shouted “raise your head”, and “we want the child.”
Mack, who operated his private car as an unlicensed taxi, known in Trinidad as a “PH” driver, kept his eyes closed and head bowed until it was yanked upwards by ASP Johnny Abraham. The same officers had solved the Arismandez murder.
Leah went missing on February 10 after leaving the Edinburgh Government Primary School to travel to her Tom Street, Longdenville, home.
Police said when her mother, Gale Lammy, called the child’s cellphone, a man answered and asked for a (Can) $60,000 ransom.
Mack was charged with kidnapping and theft of the cellphone. He had no relatives in court and no lawyer.
In court, though, was Oscal Lammy, Leah Lammy’s father, who only wanted to know where was his little Leah.
Leah’s mother, Gale, said she couldn’t go to court, that she wouldn’t be able to maintain her composure.
An investigating officer said the chances of finding Leah alive were slim. “It is too long since the girl went missing and we have received information she may be dead, which we believe, hence the involvement of the homicide officers.”
Acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert instructed Homicide Bureau detectives Acting ASP Johnny Abraham, Insp Stanley Ramdeen and PC Sunil Ramoutar to assist in finding Leah. A homicide source said investigators were doing their best and working “vigorously” to find little Leah.
The introduction of these top detectives in the case came after investigators made their first big breakthrough, arresting four men in a house at Cunupia, in which they also recovered Leah’s cellphone.
One of the four suspects vehemently denied kidnapping Leah, telling police he had found the phone and was attempting to sell it. The other three suspects were released.
Days after Leah’s disappearance, investigators led searches in areas at Cunupia, Longdenville and Enterprise, Chaguanas. Philbert also led door-to-door searches in Chaguanas in a bid to find the missing girl.
In another tragic story involving a young girl, another PH driver raped and murdered a schoolgirl he was hired to take to and from school before committing suicide.
Twenty-seven-year-old Churaman Ramsaroop had never shown signs of being violent. What everyone knew about him changed dramatically on March 16 when he chopped 14-year-old Zoreen Ansara Mohammed to death, after tying her up with shoe laces, slicing her with a knife and bludgeoning her with a blunt object on the head.
The murder/suicide took place off Bancroft Trace, Freeport, on a deserted track about four miles from Ramsaroop’s home in Arena Village.
The relatives of Mohammed and Ramsaroop were trying to find out what led to the murder/suicide.
Mohammed’s uncle Fazeed Ali said his niece and Ramsaroop were not in any relationship. He said Ramsaroop worked as a PH driver and used to pick up Mohammed and four other students daily to take them to the Carapichaima West Secondary School.
Mohammed’s body was dumped on a dirt road a quarter mile away from her home. Police believed she had turned down the sexual advances of a PH driver before she was beaten to death.
Ramsaroop drove to his home, parked his car, took a bottle of weedicide and walked to Martin Trace, off Arena Road, Freeport, where he ingested the weedicide. His body was discovered by a gardener. At the time his body was discovered, no one knew that Mohammed was murdered.
Leah Lammy’s kidnapping and the rape and murder of Zareen Mohammed have led to Acting Police Commissioner Philbert initiating a crackdown against PH drivers.
Philbert, while addressing the Chamber of Commerce annual luncheon on March 17, said while he understood that some people use the “PH” taxis to get home, there were “some persons who have used ‘PH’ taxis and did not get home at all.”
While announcing the crackdown on “PH” drivers, Philbert pointed out that 14-year-old Zareen Mohammed turned up dead that morning after she was killed by a “PH” driver who then committed suicide.
“Does it matter if it was a ‘PH’ driver or not? If someone decides to commit murder it does not matter what job they do,” he said, “PH drivers are not the only ones who commit crime.”
“There are people in public life committing crimes, there are police officers who moonlight or even worse, they go home and kill their family,” Philbert said.
Works Minister Colm Imbert has given Philbert the government’s full political support in the crackdown against PH drivers.
“The time has come to take very, very strong action against PH drivers and let them convert their vehicles into H cars,” Imbert said.
Imbert said to convert a private car to a taxi costs (Can) $28.
“Why wouldn’t a taxi-driver not want to spend [the money] to convert their P car into an H car?”
“What these PH drivers are doing is simply illegal and quite callous. People look at PH drivers in some way as rescuing the public from transportation problems. But what they are really doing is putting people at risk. Because if you are driving PH, your passengers are not insured.”
“If you get into an accident there is no compensation for the people in your vehicle, nor for the people in the other vehicle. Because you are operating as a public service vehicle without insurance,” he said.
Imbert, who addressed a March 19 post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, spoke extensively about the transformation exercise at Licensing Divison.
Imbert announced that the government at a cost of (Can) $21 million would start the transformation of the Licensing Division into the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.
He said the project would involve the issuing of new drivers permits and licences plates with special security features.
“It would be extremely difficult to have fraudulent plates and drivers permits (under the new system)," he said.
Imbert said the government had not yet made any firm decision on how to deal with the existing staff at the Licensing Office.
He said the new system would begin from November 2009 and there would be a transition period during which the old drivers permits and the old licence plates would be phased out and the new permits and plates come into effect.
“We are going to centralise the production of licence plates and this is going to be done by a government agency,” he said.
“And when this new system comes into being, no longer would you have this proliferation of outlets where persons can just go and get a new number plate in the morning and one never knows whether these number plates are authentic or are associated with some criminal activity.”
“Licence plates would be produced by a State agency. They would have bar codes on them and other security features to detect whether they are genuine or false.”
The Cabinet had agreed last July to enter into an agreement with the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada, to lead the transformation of the Licensing Division.
Imbert said a team was scheduled to visit Nova Scotia in March to complete the arrangement for the signing of all the necessary contractual agreements between the government of Trinidad and Tobago and the Province of Nova Scotia.

Port-of-Spain - Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Carla Brown-Antoine agrees with Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar that the conduct of Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira and Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams warrants investigation.
The DPP's letter was Persad-Bissessar's trump card in her no-confidence motion in Nunez-Tesheira in the House of Representatives last week Friday.
Persad-Bissessar said the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions had launched a criminal investigation into the conduct of the two officials-who were key actors in the Clico bailout matter-to determine whether they breached the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Persad-Bissessar had written to Brown-Antoine requesting the investigation, following information that Nunez-Tesheira, a shareholder and depositor in CL, had broken her deposits two weeks before receiving the CL brief.
Brown-Antoine's reply, dated March 20, stated: "Having reviewed the material provided by you, I am of the view that an investigation is warranted in this matter."
Brown-Antoine also referred the matter to Acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert for investigation.
"Madame minister, you have created history once more. Not only are you the first female finance minister to have engaged in such blatant, unapologetic criminality, but you are the first to also have a criminal investigation spurred on by the first female DPP, to be launched against you," Persad-Bissessar stated.
Persad-Bissessar's contribution came after the finance minister delivered a 45-minute statement in her own defence.
Noting that Nunez-Tesheira said everyone knew CIB was in trouble, Persad-Bissessar said: "By whatever means, she knew that the bank was in trouble, the fact is that everyone had their money in there and she had a duty as minister of finance to the people of Trinidad and Tobago. But what was the first thing she did? Did she go to her ministry and say, 'Give me a report because everyone saying this bank in trouble?' No, the minister ran to the bank, scrambled her own money and left the people to catch. It was a case of every man for himself."
"Not only did she pull her money out...she said, 'You know what sis'(ter), take out mammy money too'," Persad-Bissessar added. "It is reprehensible! It is appalling!" the Siparia MP thundered.
"She (Nunez-Tesheira) is not any and everybody. She is the honourable minister of finance.... Her action, without a thought...for the public interest, amounts to negligence, a dereliction and breach of duty." Kamla added that in this context, it did not matter when and how Nunez-Tesheira knew.
Persad-Bissessar said there were also questions. Noting that probate takes time, Persad-Bissessar said Nunez-Tesheira's mother passed away in August 25, and by December, a relative was able to break a deposit held in the mother's name.
"I don't see how that could happen?" she asked.
She said Nunez-Tesheira wrote a book entitled Non-Contentious Probate Law and therefore knew about probate law.
Noting that when people die, all their assets are immediately vested in the administrator general until either the grant of probate or letters of administration is filed, Persad-Bissessar said the records at the registry show no application, no grant of probate or letters of administration or power of attorney was granted.
"So the question arises: Did the minister of finance use her position and say 'that's mammy's money, sister, coming to get it?'" Persad-Bissessar asked. She said she was told that questions were raised in Clico on this issue.
"Minister, you wrote a whole book-Ethics in Legal Profession in the English-Speaking Caribbean-in which entire sections have to do with conflict of interest," Persad-Bissessar said.
"Oh my God!" cried Basdeo Panday.
"Everything she said in here, (the book) you breached," Persad-Bissessar roared.
"Did the minister tell anybody in this country, in the Parliament, in the Cabinet, that she was a shareholder (of CL Financial)?" Persad-Bissessar asked.
"The minister talks about Cabinet responsibility (in the bailout) but she was the frontline minister.... At no time did she say she was a deposit account holder. Furthermore, the minister stood up in this Parliament and said words which the documentary evidence denies," Persad-Bissessar stated.
"At no point in time in the Parliament did she disclose that she had requested closure of these two deposits nor that she requested closure before the maturity dates.... The minister has not today denied any of the public documents published in the Express, which belie her statements in Parliament (in February)," Persad-Bissessar said. "Even then, in explaining her deposits (to Parliament), she never disclosed that she was a shareholder, 'until she was drawn kicking and screaming'. The minister should be jailed!" she declared.
Persad-Bissessar said the minister came "trying to mislead us again", expecting people to believe that she did not know the difference between rolling over an account and breaking a deposit.
Persad-Bissessar said Prime Minister Patrick Manning had set a high standard of behaviour.
"How it is that you could be such a hypocrite, that you could fire one minister (Keith Rowley) for speaking loudly in a private (Cabinet) meeting, and you have another minister breaching so many areas of the law, and you would not act?" she said.
She cited Franklin Khan and Eric Williams, who resigned after allegations of a criminal nature were raised in the Parliament. "The prime minister has no choice but to fire the minister," she said.

Port-of-Spain - Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday says Trinidad and Tobago is not a rainbow country, but one that is sorely divided and has been so for centuries.
“I blame no one in particular for this. I say it is the result of our historical antecedence of colonialism, slavery and indenture. Unless we accept this divisive nature of our society and our politics, we shall do nothing about it, and we shall forever languish in the desperation of a poverty of spirit.”
Prayer alone will not bring about change, said Panday, as he urged members of the Spiritual Baptist community to use their powers to make a change to end discrimination in Trinidad and Tobago.
Panday was addressing the 14th anniversary of the Spiritual Shouter Baptists’ Liberation Day celebrations at the Shouter Baptist Liberation Hall, in Maloney last Sunday.
Panday, who was welcomed with a standing ovation, said his dreams to see the advancement of the Baptist community fell through when the PNM came into power in 2001. Panday said the PNM had spent (TT) $200 billion, yet the Baptist community had nothing to show for it.
“After 14 years and an expenditure of some $200 billion, there is no African spiritual park. It is still a dream, and I ask why? Where are the churches? Where are the cathedrals? Where are the schools?
“I know that you have prayed for them for a long time, and I know that you have prayed hard, but, my brothers and sisters, it must be clear to you now that prayer alone is not enough.
“Important though it maybe...if you have a sword in your hand, where is the sword; are you using it? To have a sword in your hand is not enough. You have got to use that sword that God has given you. We must not be like the poor man who prayed morning, noon and night to win the lottery, but he did not have time to go out and buy a ticket.
“The prayer alone did not work. He should have gone out and bought the ticket. He (God) has given you the power. If today you are still having discrimination practices against you, pray to God to awaken the powers within you.
“Use the talents inside; use it to end the discrimination against you before going to Him to ask Him to do it for you.”
Panday said he joined with the Baptist community to pray for unity in Trinidad and Tobago.

Port-of-Spain - Still mesmerised by the life changes that came with the release of "Radica", 2009 Chutney Soca Monarch winner Kenneth Salick is still waiting patiently for his prize money to fulfil his promise to his first love.
However, competition organiser George Singh, chief executive officer of Southex Promotions, says the singer will not have to wait much longer. A date for the prize giving will be announced soon, he said, adding he was yet to receive the (TT) $600,000 cheque from the Ministry of Culture.
Salick will receive $200,000 while second place winner, Ravi Bissambhar, won $100,000 for "Dularie" and third placed Lalchan "Hunter" Babwah $60,000 for his "Jep Sting Naina" hit song. Visually impaired Asha Kamachee placed fourth to earn $40,000, while Rikki Jai, Patch and Mastermind, Neeshan "Hitman" Prabhu, Rajin Dhanraj, Denyse Plummer and Soca Elvis will each receive $30,000.
Salick said he has been looking for a plot of land on which to build a house with his winnings, and maintains that he will keep his promise to give "Radica" a share.
He said that he had been advised to fill out a form for a Housing Development Corporation house, but noted there were no housing schemes in the area where he lived.
"My children don't want to leave this area so we are looking for land to build on," he said. The 46-year-old Sangre Grande handyman has been living on State lands with his eight children. Radica Paraboo, the mother of his seven children, left him 16 years ago.
The lyrics of his winning song were written at that time and in the euphoria of winning, Salick promised to share his winnings with his childhood sweetheart and first love.
Paraboo moved on after leaving Salick. She had two other children but continues to live in her village home at Vega de Oropouche.

Port-of-Spain - Trinidad and Tobago's inflation rate stayed at 11.7 percent last month, the same as in January, the latest data released by the Central Bank has shown.
In 2008, inflation reached as high as 14.7 percent, but it has fallen in the past few months.
Food price inflation, which posted a year-on-year increase of 25.9 percent in February, remained unchanged from the previous month, the bank said, citing Central Statistical Office data.
An analysis of monthly inflation figures showed that food price inflation declined by 0.7 percent after slipping 1.5 percent in January. Major areas of decline, the bank said, were in the prices of bread and cereals, meat, vegetables and milk, cheese and eggs.
The bank said the decline in international food prices resulted in a sharp reduction in domestic food inflation in many countries. But it noted that prices were still "significantly higher" than a year earlier, with February data indicating that bread and cereal prices were 45.8 percent higher than a year ago.
Many local firms have already started re-evaluating their spending plans in light of the slowdown in global growth the bank stated, noting this had already started to affect employment, especially in the energy and services sectors.
In order to provide the signal for the lowering of bank lending rates, especially to businesses, the Central Bank has reduced the "Repo" rate by 25 basis points to 8.5 percent.