Newly appointed Attorney General, Reginald Armour says he is a “proud citizen of Trinidad and Tobago” as he dismissed questions about his citizenship raised by the main opposition United National Congress (UNC).
Former speaker and leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Wade Mark, told a news conference on Thursday that Armour, who replaced Faris Al-Rawi in a Cabinet re-shuffle by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley on Wednesday, should tell the country about his status.
“We ask the question to Mr Reginald Armour do you have dual citizenship? Come clean and tell the country. We would like to ask the newly minted Attorney General Reginald Armour SC whether he was born in Trinidad or whether he was born in Dominica.
“We need answers to this question because if he was born in Dominica and they have him down as a citizen of Dominica…then he’s disqualified under our Constitution from holding office as Attorney General,” he said.
“How did you acquire your citizenship (for Trinidad and Tobago)?” Mark asked. “The ball is in the court of the newly minted Attorney General to clear the air on his citizenship.”
But in a statement posted on the Facebook page of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM), Armour, a former acting Justice of Appeal in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, and an acting High Court Judge of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago, said he is “aware that the question has been raised concerning my dual citizenship.
“I am a proud citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. I am also by birth, a citizen of Dominica. I carry and use my Trinidad and Tobago passport proudly. I do not possess nor use a Dominica passport. In this regard, I am satisfied that I took my oath of office…in full compliance with the constitution of Trinidad and Tobago, which I am sworn to uphold,” said Armour.
Section 25 of the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution states: “No person shall be qualified to be appointed as a Senator who is a citizen of a country other than Trinidad and Tobago having become such a citizen voluntarily or is under a declaration of allegiance to such a country.”
CMC/
