Condemning the Christie administration yet again, Free National Movement Chairman Sidney Collie called on Prime Minister Perry Christie to fire his Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) cabinet ministers for unscrupulous deals that were made during their time as government.
In the statement issued yesterday, Mr. Collie indicated that the PLP ministers continue their ongoing protection of corruption. “Every day the PLP is proving how much they are pillaging the peoples trust for personal gain.
“After bombshell revelations that Minister Fitzgerald and Attorney General Maynard-Gibson broke their sacred oaths to uphold the manual of procedure governing cabinet ministers, which states a minister ‘must not solicit or accept any benefit or advantage, whether for himself his immediate family or any business concern, or trust with which he is associated from persons who are in or seeking to be in any contractual or special relationship with the government,’” Mr. Collie said.
Mr. Collie said this in regards to the recent revelation of emails that revealed Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald soliciting contracts from the former Baha Mar owner Sarkis Izmirlian.
However, Mr. Collie’s reference to the ongoing protection of corruption by the PLP was made concerning even more recent revelation of another cabinet minister, Shane Gibson, receiving a substantial amount of money from embattled business mogul Peter Nygard. “Now, Shane Gibson is caught red handed, accepting $94,000 from Peter Nygard, a foreign billionaire who was at the time negotiating with the government for Crown lands.
“While Bahamians struggle to put food on the table, Shane Gibson is receiving payments from an eccentric foreign billionaire,” Mr. Collie said.
Mr. Collie further accused the PLP government of manipulating and taking advantage of Bahamians while they enrich their own lives, and calling on Mr. Christie to terminate the corrupt cabinet ministers. “The PLP continues to demonstrate indifference to Bahamian families while illegally enriching themselves.
“Once again, I and the FNM demand Prime Minister Christie to fire the whole lot of his corrupt cabinet members for their inexcusable scams.
“Although the prime minister will do anything to shelter himself and his fraudulent cabinet members from scrutiny, corruption remains on the ballot.
“If Christie does not act at once, this is the final straw for his leadership. He has presided a wholesale pillaging of our country and its time he goes into the sunset, so we can bring prosperity back and be rid of this pox on our country,” Mr. Collie said.