PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Wednesday June 15, 2016 – The deputy political leader of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) was yesterday sworn in as a Government Senator to replace Hafeez Ali, who quit his post after nude videos of him were posted online and he found himself at the centre of a blackmail plot.
Rohan Sinanan was sworn in during a sitting of the Senate yesterday, after Senate President Christine Kangaloo read a notice from President Anthony Carmona declaring Ali’s seat vacant. The 43-year-old father of five submitted his resignation last Friday after reportedly turning to the Fraud Squad to report that a woman he met online, and to whom he sent nude videos of himself, was trying to extort money from him.
Head of Corporate Communications of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, Ellen Lewis, confirmed that the Fraud Squad has launched an investigation. Ali told the Trinidad Guardian that he was “disheartened about some of the information on this issue out there and as well about some of the public comments being made about me”.
“But the real information will come to light,” he told the newspaper. His Senate replacement Sinanan, who has served as a temporary Senator before, said he did not believe Ali’s situation would have a negative impact on the PNM.
“The PNM has withstood a lot in the last 60 years and I don’t think this will do anything at all,” he told reporters. Meantime, Leader of Government Business in the Senate and PNM chairman Franklin Khan said the party would continue to support Ali.
“We have a culture here, where for a single transgression, we condemn you for life. Hafeez Ali is still a very young man. He may have done something inappropriate but I think he will work through his challenges. We will give him all the support that he needs,” he told the Senate.
“We should all, as his former colleagues in this Senate and I speak now on behalf of the PNM, give him all the support that he needs to work through his challenges and hope for the best for him and his family.”
Khan later told reporters that while the party was “disappointed” at the situation, “we all support him and his going to counselling and are giving him all the support he needs”. He also stressed that Ali was not asked to resign, but had done so of his own volition after discussions with Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley. Ali remains the PNM coordinator for the Barataria-San Juan constituency.