The late Independent Member of Parliament for St Peter, Asot Michael who was tragically killed in his home at Dry Hill earlier this week, will receive a full Official Funeral, the Cabinet has announced.
On Wednesday, the Cabinet held a lengthy discussion on the tragic death of MP Michael during which the Attorney General Sir Steadroy Benjamin also called the Commissioner of Police to try to learn of any new developments.
Based on the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda, a by-election will need to be held within the next 120 days to fill the vacant parliamentary seat left by MP Michael’s passing.
However, at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst emphasised that the government does not want to appear to be “politicking” or “rumour mongering” during the mourning period and would prefer to wait until after the burial to discuss the political implications.
He also added that it was too early for the Antigua Barbuda Labour Party to explain how the party planned to honour MP Michael, as they have not yet had their weekly executive meeting since his passing.
Hurst also gave his own tribute to MP Michael, stating that he was “a man who had tremendous amounts of energy and when he placed a particular objective in mind, he would pursue it with a great deal of vigour”.
“There’s no doubt that he had a lot of friends as a consequence of not only his generosity, but the unusualness of an Asot Michael in the politics of Antigua and Barbuda,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, the government has also requested assistance from Scotland Yard, the UK’s Metropolitan Police Service, to help with the investigation, along with other regional and international law enforcement partners.
Authorities are looking into MP Michael’s killing, as well as the recent deaths of two young women, Yenifer Bridge and Achazia James which the government revealed there were no suspects at this time in the investigation.
During an interview on Observer AM, Commissioner of Police Atlee Rodney said that the police are putting equal amount of attention into each case, “[striving] to solve all of them with the same vigour, the same energy”.
