Veteran broadcaster and Calypsonian Conse “Lord Black” Edwards was ordered out of the ZIZ booth at Carnival Village by National Carnival Chairman Noah Mills during the staging of the calypso finals at Carnival Village on Thursday night.
A shocked Edwards told Freedom Newsdesk moments ago that while sitting with fellow commentators Nital and Abonathy Liburd in the ZIZ booth; doing live radio comments for the
calypso show, Mills suddenly appeared in the booth with a police officer and demanded that he leave the booth immediately.
Edwards over the years is a staple calypso finals commentator on ZIZ radio mixing his experience in calypso and journalism to capture the high and low points of the exciting kaiso finals.
Edwards said that he told Mills that he was invited to do comments by ZIZ but Mills responded by pointing out that the property housing ZIZ equipment was owned by the National Carnival Committee (NCC) and it was on that basis he(Mills) was insisting that he(Edwards) leave the broadcast booth.
Mills and the police then accompanied Edwards out of the booth.
Edwards said the action by Mills was “petty, vindictive and ridiculous” and that as far as he knew he had no beef with the Chairman; but wondered if Mills was targeting him for past criticism during the attempt made by Chairman Mills to censor calypsonians this year by having them produce their lyrics for vetting by the NCC; a move which was rejected by a majority of calypsonians at a meeting in November with the NCC.
Chairman Mills has had a turbulent time since being appointed Carnival Chairman by the Team Unity Government less than 2 years ago. Street party organizers, soca artistes and calypsonians to vendors, sub committee chairpersons and media houses have all had concerns and opposed Carnival policies and proposals brought by Mills for implementation.