‘Prez won’t resign’

By Saman Indrajith

Chief Government Whip Johnston Fernando informed Parliament yesterday that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would not resign.

Addressing the Parliament session, the Minister said 6.9 million citizens of the country had voted for the President.

“As a responsible government, we state that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will not resign from his post, under any circumstances,” Minister Fernando said.

The Minister said that the government would face the current national crisis.

He said that the conduct of the Opposition was regrettable because its aim was to grab power, by capitalising on the crisis. “Yesterday we saw how the JVP leader passed through a protest. While he was speaking to the protesters, a person wearing a helmet got into his vehicle. We should find out who that person was. When there is a threat to the lives of MPs, this is a matter to be investigated, because a person covering his face, getting into a vehicle of an MP, is a serious issue. Why did a person need a helmet to travel in a double cab? We saw, in that video footage, Anura Kumara Dissanayake calling on the protestors to attack the MPs. We demand that an investigation should be conducted to ascertain the identity of that mysterious person. He cannot be an officer of the Ministerial Security Division because they would not wear helmets to travel in a double cab. We must get security to check the CCTVs to find out where that person alighted from that vehicle.”

Responding to the Chief Government Whip, the JVP leader said that it was one of the personal security guards, assigned to him by his party, that got into the double cab.

Chief Government Whip: It is good to know that you have a rider team of security men in your party.