By Clint Chan Tack Wednesday, August 19 2009

CHAGUANAS WEST MP Jack Warner will meet with his legal team today to plan his legal actions against Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday and the national executive of the United National Congress (UNC).

Warner told Newsday yesterday the team will be comprised of English attorney Allan Newman QC and local attorneys Anand Ramlogan, and Om Lalla.

Ramlogan unsuccessfully contested the Tabaquite seat for the Congress of the People (COP) against current MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj in the 2007 general election.

Newman arrived in the country yesterday afternoon on a flight from London.

Warner said the trio would meet with him today at his Concacaf office on Dundonald Street today for a series of meetings. He said the first set will deal with accusations levelled against him by Panday that he might have received money from drug lords.

Warner added that the second series of meetings to be held today will discuss recent decisions by the UNC national executive to refer Maharaj, Mayaro MP Winston “Gypsy” Peters and himself to the party’s disciplinary committee.

Reiterating that this was an attempt to prevent the trio from contesting UNC internal elections “if they are ever held,” Warner said neither he nor his colleagues have been told when the disciplinary committee would begin to deliberate on their matters because the committee “is not properly constituted.” He claimed that all of this was being done because the UNC’s constitution debars any member who is before the disciplinary committee from contesting the internal elections.

Warner said the legal team will also discuss plans by the UNC’s national executive to discipline UNC councillors Falicia Issahak and Narsingh Rambaran for voting with PNM councillors to appoint Natasha Navas as Chaguanas Mayor.

Contacted yesterday, Ramlogan said he would be meeting with Warner, Newman and Lalla today but did not say whether he had agreed to join Warner’s legal team. Maharaj told Newsday that he was “a victim” in the ongoing lobby for change in the UNC and would not be serving as legal counsel in that matter. Warner also indicated that neither he, Maharaj nor Peters would be attending any further UNC national executive meetings at Rienzi Complex in Couva because “it will serve no useful purpose.”

Panday yesterday said he had not received any writ or legal correspondence from Warner and saw no reason to begin preparing a legal defence at this time.