Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee has disputed a statement by the Prime Minister that Lee's niece was married to one of the LMCS Ltd divers who were sucked into a 30-inch diameter pipeline at Paria Trading Company Ltd, Pointe-a-Pierre, last month.

During his speech at the UNCs Virtual Report on Monday night, Lee responded to a statement reportedly made by Dr Rowley.

A newspaper article quoted Rowley as saying Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said, "Tiah is the neighbour of the Prime Minister."

He responded, "What nonsense. I don't live in Inezgate. I own a property there, my family owns a property there. But I don't live there. My house is in Mason Hall. Shirvan is ten miles away.

"But Kamla was on the platform saying Eugene Tiah is my neighbour.:Former Energy Chamber head Eugene Tiah was nominated to the committee set up by the Government to investigate the Paria diving incident. Tiah stepped down after the Opposition accused him of being linked to the PNM, and the committee was then abandoned in favour of a commission of enquiry.

The Prime Minister went on: 'But when her office-holder is the wife of the man who owns the company and David Lee's niece was the wife of the diver, she sees no conflict there.'

Lee denied the statement, saying, 'I have one niece and she is an American citizen. She is not married to one of the divers.

"I do not know how (Rowley) can casually say, 'David Lee's niece is married to one of the divers.' You are lying to the population. You are lying on me.'

LMCS is the firm contracted to do maintenance work on the pipeline. On February 25, divers from the Tarouba-based company went missing during a routine maintenance job.

Of the five - Fyzal Kurban, Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr, Yusuf Henry and Christopher Boodram - only Boodram survived after being rescued by volunteer divers.

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