(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s adviser on public engagements, Sasha Mohammed, yesterday tendered her resignation from the post “with immediate effect.” Sources close to the Office of the Prime Minister said the letter was addressed to the Prime Minister and copied to her permanent secretary, Reynold Copper. Mohammed decided to resign because she has launched legal action against a media house “as a result of its false, malicious and spurious” allegations against her, the sources said, referring to her letter.
Mohammed sent a pre-action protocol letter to the media house on July 13, claiming she had been the target of a “bitter and unjustified attack.” In January, two journalists at the media house received an e-mail, which they said they felt threatened by, at the height of the Reshmi Usha Ramnarine affair. That controversy involved the Prime Minister’s appointment of Ramnarine, a telecommunications technician, to fill the top post at the Strategic Services Agency, which some describe as the local CIA.
In her resignation letter, sources said, Mohammed proclaimed her innocence of all the allegations that have been levelled against her but she pointed out that in exercising her legal options against the media house, she wanted to do so “without constraint” and save the Office of the Prime Minister from being the target of a “malicious personal agenda.” Contacted late last night, Mohammed confirmed she had submitted her resignation but declined any comment on the communication.
