POWER IN YOUR HANDS, MADAME PMBy Stacy Moore Sunday, March 3 2013
Bhimal Ramsahai, grieving father of Jerome Ramsahai, whose charred remains were found in a car trunk at the Heights of Guanapo in Arima on Friday, yesterday told Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar she has the power in her hands to deal with the crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago...by resuming hangings.
“Prime Minister you have the power in your hand , you could solve this crime situation. Start back the hangings,” Ramsahai said, with tears streaming down his face.
The charred remains of Jerome, 27, and his cousin Dale, 28 were found in the trunk of a Nissan Tiida car that was set on fire. Reports said Arima police officers responded to a report that a car was on fire at 3 and 3/4 mile mark Heights of Gunapo. It was firemen, who were called in to extinguish the blaze, who found what was said to be the remains of Jerome and Dale, inside the trunk. Their hands were secured with barbed wire. Investigators believe the cousins were shot dead, tied and placed in the trunk of the vehicle.
Yesterday, at the homes of grieving families which are separated by just one house, screams of grief could be heard. at Dale’s house his mother Savitri wept unrestrainedly. Speaking to the Sunday Newsday at the family home, Ramsahai (Jerome’s father),wept as he sent a message to the Prime Minister via the media “to start back putting things in place...that people in this country would put down their guns and watch to the sky and look to the Lord.”
Wiping tears away, Ramsahai said:
“Put down your gun, let us live as one.”
Ramsahai said he has not been able to come to terms with the deaths of his son and nephew.
“I want to believe that they are somewhere alive. And who have them let them come home safe. I don’t want to believe they are dead. They will come home.”
He said when he went to view the bodies of Jerome and Dale at the Forensic Science Centre in Port-of Spain, the bodies were charred.
“I could not identify anything that was them. They are out there and until then, I will not accept that they are dead. I will not accept it,” he said, adding that his son and nephew were never ones to give any trouble.
Dale was a University of West Indies (UWI) graduate with a Masters Degree in Information Technology while Jerome was enrolled in a Masters programme at the School of Business and Computer Science (SBSC) in Champs Fleurs. The cousins were said to be staunch Roman Catholics and Jerome recently went to Ohio, USA to visit a shrine where there was an apparition of the Virgin Mary.
“We all have known Dale and Jerome very well, they are not in any ‘gangster thing’. And even if they had gotten any threats, they would have said something. I don’t know what went on,” Ramsahai said.
Ramsahai said he was hoping that police officers could bring closure to him and his family. Holding his grandson, Dominic, in one arm, Ramsahai looked into the television cameras of the media at his home, saying, “Tell Dale and Jerome to come home.” And Dominic blurted out the word “dead”, Ramsahai hugged him tightly saying, “Don’t say that. They are alive. They’ll come home.”
Jerome’s sister Liana Ramsahai is an attorney and the deputy chairman of state-owned Carribean New Media Group (CNMG).
Jerome was employed as a loans officer at Scotia Bank while Dale worked as an information Technology Co-ordinator at TT Coalition Services Industry. The cousins were renting an apartment at Park Street, Port-of-Spain to make their commute to work easier. They were last seen alive liming at 8.20pm on Thursday night at 51 Degrees nightclub at Cipriani Boulevard, Port-of-Spain. Yesterday, Tertiary Education and Skills Training Minister, Senator Fazal Karim, visited the bereaved families along Seurage Trace, Debe to offer comfort and condolences. Karim, who spoke privately with the family members, later told reporters that the nation should pray for the family. He said it was a difficult and challenging time for the family knowing the circumstances of the deaths of Jermone and Dale. Karim said he knew members of the family.
“Both parents are very distraught. And I have offered my condolences on behalf of the ministry and my family,” the minister said.
National Security Minister, Jack Warner, in a phone interview, also expressed condolences to the family saying “every murder is a bad murder” and urged the national community to return to the values of looking out for one another.
“The murders are getting more and more gruesome and we have to become our brother’s keeper and look out for one another,” Warner said.
Warner said the murders were being actively investigated by the police.
