Prime Minister Phillip J. Pierre condemned political attacks on his daughter during an August 25 speech at the Saint Lucia Labor Party’s “Walk of Progress”.
He called the attacks as a smear campaign by the Opposition. The controversy escalated on August 23 when the United Workers Party (UWP) shared an article. The article questioned his daughter’s credentials and implied corruption. Written by Kenneth Rijock, it suggested that Pierre’s daughter, a Risk Profiler at the Citizenship by Investment Program (CIP) Unit, was involved in fraudulent activities with the Prime Minister.
Angered, Pierre vowed to expose those behind the attacks. “They are engineering nastiness against us, personal attacks on people, including my daughter. Allen Chastanet is the one behind all this nastiness that’s happening in this country,” Pierre declared.
Additionally, he also accused Chastanet of working with Phillip Martinez, who filed legal actions against CIP CEO Mc Claude Emanuel. Martinez plans to name 17 more Saint Lucians, including Investment Minister Dr. Ernest Hilaire, in a US-based RICO case.
“You can attack me, you can attack us, but when you will go and join with people who have no interest in Saint Lucia but interested only in themselves to being down Saint Lucia, to try to get Saint Lucia to lose its correspondent banking, you do not love this country,” Pierre stated. He stressed that these attacks harm the nation.
The Opposition has demanded answers from Pierre about CIP after Martinez claimed Pierre sought a financial settlement through lawyers. Pierre responded on a radio program: “As far as I know, the government has done nothing of that nature… Lawyers deal with lawyers, there’s a case, you know? There’s a case.”
Source: Loop St. Lucia
Photo credit: Saint Lucia Labor Party
