Opposition MPs ordered to pay monies owed in suspension case – AG issues letter

The eight Opposition members of parliament (MPs), who were suspended for their disruptive behaviour in parliament and the removal of the parliamentary mace in 2021, are demanded to pay the monies owed to the State in the suspension case, within seven days from March 10, 2023.

This was highlighted in a letter penned by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, to Opposition member and attorney, Roysdale Forde on March 10, 2023, for the eight MPs to make the payment.

AG Nandlall emphasised that to date, no payment has been made by the MPs in breach of the order of the court in a ruling rendered by Justice Damone Younge.

Failure to complete the payment of costs awarded in the case, the letter stated, “would result in enforcement of the aforesaid Order of Court without further notice.”

The MPs were mandated to pay $350,000 in costs to the state by February 6, according to the decision rendered by Justice Younge in the High Court.

The case concluded on January 16, 2023.

Annette Ferguson, Christopher Jones, Ganesh Mahipaul, Vinceroy Jordan, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, Sherod Duncan, Maureen Philadelphia, and Natasha Singh-Lewis are the opposition MPs who were suspended.

The court determined that Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, had the authority to impose the suspension and that the Parliamentary Privileges Committee had every right to recommend it.

The MPs’ attempt on December 29, 2021, to block the passage of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Bill—which resulted in the violent removal of the parliamentary mace—led to their suspension from Parliament.