TT PM appoints new government minister

Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar has named Rodger Samuel as Community Development Minister following the resignation of Winston “Gypsy” Peters last week Tuesday.

A brief government statement said that Samuel will carry out his new portfolio in addition to his duties as Minister of National Diversity and Social Integration.

Peters resigned from the cabinet and as a member of the ruling United National Congress (UNC) describing Persad Bissessar as a “deceitful” person and he could not in “good conscience tell anyone to vote for Kamla Persad Bissessar in the September 7 general election”.

But Prime Minister Persad Bissessar told reporters that she wished her former minister all the best in his future endeavours and denied treating Peters, a former calypsonian, badly.

Peters told a news conference that he had been very supportive of the prime minister over the years and felt hurt after the party had agreed to another person to contest the Mayaro constituency which he was won four times in the last five elections.