“The AFC (Alliance For Change) is desperately attempting to pollute and cloud the matter of the sexual assault allegations against Mr. Trotman, by adding a political dimension, but it has abysmally failed,” said the Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Anil Nandlall.His comments followed statements made by AFC, executive member, Mr. Moses Nagamootoo, who also contends that the allegations are an attempt to derail consideration of the no-confidence motion when the National Assembly comes out of recess on October 10.
The sexual abuse allegations were levelled against Mr. Trotman by 22-year-old Johnny Welchman Jr. Mr. Raphael Trotman, the Speaker of the National Assembly, since the allegations were made, has been most empathic in his denial of claims that he sexually assaulted the young man in question. The allegation was first made public through an entry on the popular social media site, Facebook.
According to Nagamootoo, interpretation of the intention for the attack against Trotman is seen in calls already being made to him to resign.
“This concoction or allegation against the Speaker was intended to rile the Speaker up…the intention is clear. It is to derail the no-confidence motion, to create a parliamentary crisis. If you don’t have a speaker you have an uncertainty as to where and how the motion will be discussed,” the AFC Member of Parliament (MP) said, last Friday, at an AFC news conference.

LUDICROUS CONTENTION
However, Nandlall was emphatic in his rejection of these statements. “The AFC has advanced the ludicrous contention that this is a plot hatched to avert their no- confidence motion,” he said.
The AG explained that Nagamootoo’s arguments are both “clumsy and foolish” ones.
“If for whatever reason, Mr. Trotman is removed or resigns as Speaker, then a new Speaker can be elected by a majority in the National Assembly at its very next sitting. How this simple legal process eludes so many lawyers in the AFC is indeed startling,” he said, dismissing Nagamootoo’s arguments.
Nandlall highlighted that the AFC, although Mr. Trotman has moved to the courts and secured and injunction barring the publication of comments from his accuser, continue to be the ones advancing a motive for the publication of the allegations.
“His party is the one that is publishing, or rather, causing to be published, these allegations of sexual misconduct more than anyone else. I find this entire situation most unusual,” he said.
In addition, there are active investigations and civil proceedings, related to the matter, ongoing.
“The approach of the AFC in their defence of their co-founder against the allegations of sexual misconduct levelled at him is indeed one that is bereft of both logic and common sense,” Nandlall concluded.
Like the AG, the Prime Minister and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Samuel Hinds, has also dismissed the assertion that the current Administration is employing delaying tactics ahead of the debate on the much-talked-about no-confidence motion.
“I expect that when Parliament resumes the motion will be on the Order Paper and then we shall see where things go from there,” he said.
The Alliance For Change’s (AFC) no-confidence motion was submitted to the Clerk of the National Assembly at the beginning of August. The first inkling the public had that the AFC had planned moving a no-confidence motion against the Government was way back in mid-June, when party Vice-Chairman, Mr Moses Nagamootoo, hinted at it.
He did so by way of an article published in the Stabroek News and headlined: “AFC considering no-confidence motion against Gov’t.” He, however, acknowledged that to do so would require the support of the main Opposition party, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
The AFC finally got its wish on Tuesday, August 5, when APNU Leader, Brigadier (rtd.) David Granger publicly confirmed that his party was fully behind the no-confidence motion.
The first page of the Motion reads: “Be it resolved that this National Assembly has no confidence in the Government.”

(By Vanessa Narine)