Austin Gatt and Toni Abela issues ‘completely different’ – Borg Olivier

Nationalist Party secretary general Paul Borg Olivier reiterated the Nationalist Party's calls for Labour deputy leader Toni Abela to resign over his involvement in recordings unveiled either this week on grounds of "ethical, moral, and political responsibility."

The call follows in the wake of a second recording, circulated through sock puppet YouTube channel 'kristianbuhagiar', in which Abela is heard talking about a drugs incident inside another party club and why he did not lodge a police report on the issue.

Nationalist MP David Agius has admitted to knowing about the case since October 2010, and informing Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who instructed him to report the case to the police. No legal action has since been taken against Abela.

Flanked by Nationalist Party MP Beppe Fenech Adami, Borg Olivier insisted that the latest recording prove that Abela was aware of potential drug-related offences, and failed to report the case or force the person who knew to report it himself.

He also called on the Labour Party to reveal which is the Party club in question, insisting that the public has a right to know which club could be involved in drug-related offences.

Borg Olivier also aired clips showing Labour deputy leader Louis Grech and candidate Manwel Mallia saying that they would have acted differently to Abela, using this as a platform to reiterate the PN's challenge to labour leader Joseph Muscat on whether he would keep defending Abela.

Borg Olivier also challenged Muscat to confirm Abela's statements in an interview published that day, where the Labour deputy leader said that he did not report the drug find in the Labour club to Labour Leader Joseph Muscat.

Both Borg Olivier and Fenech Adami drove home the Nationalist Party's message that Abela was "duty-bound" to report the case to the police, and accused him of acting solely in the interest of the Labour committee and the Labour party.

"Twice he has fallen short of his political responsibilities, the first when he asked a Labourite policeman to hold off an investigation, the second when he admitted that he knew of a case of drugs in a Labour club, and did nothing about it," Borg Olivier said.

However asked by MaltaToday whether, by the same reasoning, Minister Austin Gatt should resign, given Gatt's involvement in the ongoing Enemalta corruption kickbacks scandal, Borg Olivier insisted that the two cases are "completely differently."

Without explaing where the difference lies, Borg Olivier launched into an attack against the Labour Party, insisting that the calls for Gatt's resignation "show the Labour Party's contradictions."

He said that Gatt is being resigned "over something that he did not know about" while the PL and labour leader Joseph Muscat "are defending someone who confirmed he knew."

Borg Olivier also categorically denied that the Abela recordings were unearthed by the Nationalist Party to overshadow the unfolding Enemalta oil scandal, in the course of which Austin Gatt has already made statements to the Police Commissioner.

"It is totally incorrect," Borg Olivier insisted.

Borg Olivier however dodged questions asking why the Nationalist Party chose to remain quiet about the issue for two years only to come out with guns blazing three weeks before the election, given Prim Minister Lawrence Gonzi knew of the recordings since October 2010.

"The Prime Minister was informed of what David Agius told him," Borg Olivier said.

"The point is not this," Borg Olivier however added. "The point is that David Agius reported the issue to the Police Commissioner and made a statement."

Borg Olivier took the opportunity to reinforce the Nationalist Party's and respect in police investigations but however insisted "if one is in possession of information it is in the interest of justice one should make a report. That is what the PN did."

"The issue did not emerge now to obscure something else," Borg Olivier insisted, pointing to the ongoing court case, and the manner in which Abela's statements emerged as part of the testimony.

"The case was not deferred by some PN manoeuvring. It was a case that is proceeding and being heard in court on 8 February, and it was through the testimony of a witness that all this was revealed."

Borg Olivier however sidestepped the fact that the recordings themselves that were uploaded on a sock-puppet account on Youtube and alter circulated through Nationalist media, were not related to the ongoing court case.

In fact, asked whether he knew the identity of the account holder, Borg Olivier denied all knowledge. "I do not know this person."

"So it is not a question of timing, or why it did not emerge two years ago, and why it emerged two years later instead. The issue is that there was a witness who revealed this information," Borg Olivier insisted.

Asked whether, in the PN's view, Toni Abela had committed any illegalities, Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami delivered a lawyer's answer: "We are not here to talk about what is legal and what is not, but what is correct."

"We are not in court. The question should be: When Toni Abela found out that someone was trafficking heroin or cocaine in a Labour club, did he do well? It is correct that a party deputy leader, to protect the interests of his committee, covers up this criminal offence? I think that I the question."

"The people who are following us don't care about legalisms," Fenech Adami claimed, insisting that the public is more concerned about whether potentially the next deputy prime minister intentionally covered up a potential drug offence.

Fenech Adami also insisted that Labour was adopting a "two weights, two measures" approach, where despite how former deputy leader Anglu Farrugia was called upon to resign after a comment regarding he judiciary, Abela is being defended despite the recent revelations.

Paul Borg also fielded questions regarding his much-reported fateful trip abroad aboard development magnate Zaren Vassallo. Asked whether he would do it again, Borg Olivier is unrepentant.

"If I knew then that there would have been all this fuss about it, I would have avoided it - even if I think that I don't think that I did anything wrong."