Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter and Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Gen­er­al Elec­tion can­di­date for Diego Mar­tin North/East, Colm Im­bert, has con­firmed le­gal ac­tion is un­der­way against nine in­di­vid­u­als—in­clud­ing a Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) can­di­date—over defam­a­to­ry state­ments made about him on so­cial me­dia.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at a grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny for the Pipe Plumb­ing Skills Train­ing Pro­gramme, where 89 ap­pren­tices re­ceived cer­tifi­cates qual­i­fy­ing them to be­come san­i­ta­tion plumb­ing con­trac­tors, Im­bert said pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ters were be­ing is­sued.

“I can’t re­call all of them at the mo­ment—I be­lieve it’s about nine. I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Im­bert said when asked about the in­di­vid­u­als in­volved.