For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says to this day, he re­mains “deeply sad­dened” by the trag­ic deaths of four divers in the Paria div­ing in­ci­dent on Feb­ru­ary 25, 2022. He al­so re­grets how the tragedy be­came “ex­treme­ly politi­cised” and pro­tract­ed.

In a post on Face­book yes­ter­day, Row­ley re­vealed his thoughts as he de­nied a news­pa­per re­port that he re­fused to re­spond to ques­tions from a Dai­ly Mail re­porter on the in­ci­dent. He al­so showed the lengthy re­sponse he pro­vid­ed—on time—to the re­porter’s queries.

In the re­sponse, Row­ley said: “I re­main deeply sad­dened by the trag­ic deaths of the four divers—Fyzal Kur­ban, Yusuf Hen­ry, Kaz­im Ali Jr, Rishi Na­gas­sar—who per­ished in the Feb­ru­ary 25, 2022, in­ci­dent at Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed.”