Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner says he will no longer waste his efforts fighting Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday. Instead, he intends to train his guns on Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

’The public will judge him for the nonsense he is talking. Let Mr Panday talk. Mr Panday will burn himself out because of his foolishness,’ Warner told the Express yesterday.

’I will now try to elevate the discussion and raise the bar and no longer listen to Mr Panday and his nonsense.... We are gearing towards a programme of response to deal with Patrick Manning and to ensure a budget for the people.’

Warner said there were pressing issues that need to be tackled, among them crime, floods and the healthcare system. He said during public meetings, his focus will be on these issues.

Warner said regardless of what Panday may say about him, he has no intention to continue a battle of words.

’I think Mr Panday was hoping that I would make him a victim. He expected me to remove the bail for his wife,’ Warner said.

On Thursday, Warner had a change of heart and decided to drop a libel lawsuit he had intended to slap on Panday.

Panday was unmoved by Warner’s action though, saying he never had a case in the first place and maintained that Warner was irrelevant to the politics of the UNC (United National Congress).

Warner said yesterday he would fight Panday, but at the executive level of the UNC, for the move to send him and dissident MPs Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and Winston ’Gypsy’ Peters to the party’s disciplinary committee.

Although the UNC internal elections are expected to be called in the near future, neither Warner nor Maharaj can contest any positions because they are before the party’s disciplinary committee.

Warner said he was aware that court action could halt the elections, but he stressed that this would only be for a short period.

He asserted that Panday must step down as the UNC’s political leader and noted that he (Panday) did not select any of his three deputy leaders to act as political leader during his absence from the country.

Panday is currently in New York, USA.

’Mr Panday is out of the country for two weeks. Under the constitution, a deputy political leader must act in his place...he’s so insecure, he can’t put someone to act in his absence; this nonsense can’t continue,’ said Warner.

Commenting on the ongoing conflict between Chaguanas Mayor Natasha Navas and deputy mayor Orlando Nagessar, Warner said in time he will personally deal with this matter.

’Mr Nagessar is a 72-year-old pensioner who is taking on an arm of Mr Panday’s fight, I shall, of course, in the fullness of time take over the fight in full,’ he said.

Warner said the locks on Nagessar’s office will soon be replaced, and he could continue being the ’mayor of nothing’.