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In the MaltaToday issue of February 13, 2005, Floriana’s mayor Publio Agius, stated that before giving an ‘appropriate reply’ to my letter dated January 23, 2005, he first wanted me to categorically mention ‘what the Floriana residents have been suspecting for some time’.
Agius has apparently forgotten that in the news report entitled, ‘Labour imposes Publio in Floriana, Nigel retaliates’ by Karl Schembri (MaltaToday, February 6, 2005), Malta Labour Party Secretary General Jason Micallef admitted that exactly before December 17, 2004, he had issued instructions to Floriana Labour Councillors Hallett and Zammit to vote in favour of Agius as mayor even though Agius had never contested successive Floriana Local Council elections on behalf of the Malta Labour Party but had always contested as an ‘independent’.
A couple of days after the mayor was ‘imposed’ on Floriana, I was informed by Malta Labour Party sources that, in spite of his supposed independence, Publio Agius had met Jason Micallef in the latter’s office at the Mile End headquarters in Hamrun. I was further informed that Agius had entered the Mile End headquarters from the garage door because he had insisted with the Malta Labour Party’s administration that he did not want passers-by to see him entering the party headquarters from the front door, so that he would then have been in a position to pretend that he was an independent and that no accord had been reached with the Malta Labour Party to the detriment of the Nationalist Party in Floriana.
During the meeting Agius had told Micallef that, should the Malta Labour Party not support his bid for mayor ship, he, (Agius), would have promptly resigned from council seat with the consequence being that the Nationalist Party would have ended up with another council seat by means of a by-election. There was then an ironic twist to all this since the two Floriana Labour Councillors Hallett and Zammit had not been told of the garage entrance arrangement and, after having waited in vain for Agius to turn up in bitter weather outside, they turned up for the meeting, only to discover that Agius was already sipping coffee in Jason Micallef’s office and that an accord had already been reached behind the backs of the two Floriana Labour Councillors.
I can now, as previously requested, finally oblige Pullu Agius by categorically saying that, notwithstanding his supposedly independent status in the Floriana Local Council, most Floriana residents have been suspecting, for quite some time, that he has been conniving with certain officials of the Malta Labour Party to further his own selfish aims. The news report titled, ‘Labour imposes Publio in Floriana, Nigel retaliates’ by Karl Schembri (MaltaToday, February 6, 2005) has been taken as proof, by many Floriana residents, that he, (Agius), can be considered as an integral part of the Malta Labour Party set-up.
Edward Torpiano
Floriana
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