Fort Charlotte Member of Parliament Dr. Andre Rollins was fired from his position as chairman of the gaming board with immediate effect after weeks of exchanging fiery words with his party’s leaders and most recently questioning Prime Minister Perry Christie’s leadership skills.

In a brief press statement release on Friday, the government thanked Dr. Rollins for his service and wished him well in his future endeavours.
This termination of Dr. Rollins comes only days after he resigned as Party Whip following the contentious debate on gender equality.

During several house debates over the past few weeks, Dr. Rollins unleashed much fury at his party’s leaders, even accusing them of threatening voices of dissent.

The prime minister warned at one point that there are consequences for going against the party’s grain and the acting Prime Minister Phillip Brave Davis at the time invited Dr. Rollins to do the honourable thing for doing so.

The Bahama Journal recently spoke with the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Deputy Chairman Alex Storr about Dr. Rollins’ behaviour in recent weeks and call for new leadership within the PLP.

When asked if Dr. Rollins crossed the line, Mr. Storr did not specifically answer, but he did note that if it were him, he would not have done what the Dr. Rollins did adding he should have expressed his concerns and disagreements during the party’s in-house meetings.

“I think that when you have an organisation that’s made up of so many people, you’re bound to have opposing views but the thing is you voice them in the proper format, in the proper venue and I do have a problem with some of the things that are said in parliament, others would take it upon themselves to take that route but I personally would not take that route, there’s a proper venue for such discord” he said.

“Like I said there are different forums, we have leadership counsel, we have parliamentarian meetings where you can voice those concerns, I think that he should have done it through the proper channels if that was his feelings. When you go in parliament, its where you go to represent your people, for persons to go and speak to the issues that are in parliament and I don’t think that was the issue that was being discussed, it was a discussion on the VAT legislation and I think that’s what should have been discussed.”

Dr. Rollins and Mr. Christie have gotten embroiled in several shouting matches in the House of Assembly during debates.
Dr. Rollins has also been most vocal in his disapproval of the controversial Value Added Tax (VAT) Bill that was passed in parliament last week.