PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Wednesday re-shuffled his near two-year old cabinet, appointing a new Attorney General and shifting some of his more senior ministers to new portfolios.
A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said Rowley had informed President Paula-Mae Weekes, to revoke the appointments of Faris Al-Rawi as attorney general, replacing him with Senior Counsel, Reginald Armour.
Armour served as an acting Justice of Appeal in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, an acting High Court Judge of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago, and is a former member of the Law Reform Commission and the Legal Aid Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, among others.
In 2007, he was appointed by the President of Trinidad and Tobago to serve as Tribunal Counsel to the 2007 Mustill Tribunal and in 2012 by the Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court as Tribunal Counsel in St Lucia to the Stollmeyer Tribunal. Both of these Tribunals were constitutional Tribunals established to investigate and report on judicial misbehaviour.
The statement said that the appointments of Clarence Rambharat as Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries; Pennelope Beckles as Minister of Housing and Urban Development; Camille Robinson-Regis as Minister of Planning and Development, and Kazim Hosein as Minister of Local Government and Rural Development had all been revoked.
Apart from Armour, who has now been appointed Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, the statement said that Al-Rawi has been appointed Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, while Robinson-Regis will be the new Minister of Housing and Urban Development
The new Minister of Planning and Development is Beckles while Hosein is the new Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries.
The statement said that Nigel de Freitas has been appointed as Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries with responsibility for Lands. He has since resigned his position as Vice President of the Senate with Dr Muhammad Ibrahim replacing him in that position. (CMC)