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VOLUME:115 No.84, MARCH 22ND, 2018

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INSIDE

EU blacklist over end May ‘at latest’ Turnquest upbeat CHARGED WITH but corporate BODYBUILDER’S tax IS coming

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Deputy Prime Minister yesterday said the Government “trusts” the European Union (EU) will remove The Bahamas from its “blacklist” by May 2018 at “the latest”.

KP Turnquest, addressing a financial services industry briefing, said he and Brent Symonette, the minister of financial services, left Brussels last week with the understanding they had presented everything necessary to demonstrate The Bahamas’ compliance with

the EU’s anti-tax avoidance drive.

However, Tribune Business has learned that the Government’s planned legal reforms pave the way for the introduction of “corporate taxation” on a wide range of Bahamian financial services products.

Carl Bethel QC, the Attorney General, confirmed that legislation intended to address the “blacklisting” concerns was designed to give “flexibility” in determining the type of corporate taxation that will be imposed.

MURDER

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

AS THE Minnis administration forges ahead with its crackdown on shanty towns, a census of people living in all 11 of these illegal residential areas spread across New Providence is expected to begin Saturday, Labour Minister Dion Foulkes has told The Tribune.

Mr Foulkes, who is chairman of the government-appointed shanty town committee, said

yesterday the government needs a clear understanding of the demographics involved as it moves to clean up the capital and more broadly the country.

So far the committee has toured many of the shanty towns in The Bahamas and has narrowed down who the Bahamian landowners are. The government, Mr Foulkes said, intends to meet with these people to get a full understanding of the shanty town issue.

SEE PAGE FIVE

L SOUR CE

COCO CAY’S CRITICS ‘NEED TO BE CAUTIOUS’

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE recent furore over Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s planned $200m expansion of Coco Cay, the Bahamas Environmental Science and Technology (BEST) Commission has been aware of the plans for “some time now”.

Philip Weech, director of the BEST Commission, yesterday said his office is aware of all expansions at the cruise cay.

He also cautioned critics, insisting aspects of the development were proposed, reviewed and approved under two separate environmental impact assessments (EIA). The first of which was carried out between 2015 and 2016.

Local environmental activists last week slammed the massive upgrade for its impact of the ecosystem of the Berry Islands, where Coco Cay is located.

SEE PAGE NINE

BOWE VOICES DOUBTS OVER OBAN DEAL’S FINANCING

SHANTY TOWNS CENSUS UNVEILED

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

$1

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net GOWON Bowe, president of the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants, is not convinced the Minnis administration has secured “proof of funding” for the $5.5bn Oban Energies project.

He also said Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ address Tuesday evening suggests the project remains a “concept” that has yet to be fleshed out.

TRACEY PRATT, 43, outside court yesterday, who is accused of the murder of bodybuilder Paul Melbourne on Saturday. See page three for the full story.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

SEE PAGE SEVEN

KHIARA LAWSUIT: ‘THROW IT OUT’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER Bahamian beauty queen’s copyright lawsuit against the Ministry of Tourism “falls woefully short” and should be dismissed, the Government agency is demanding. The Ministry, in its March 19 response to the action filed by ex-Miss Bahamas Universe, Khiara Sherman,

KHIARA SHERMAN alleged that she and her record company had failed to identify the advertisements that used her Fly

Away With Me song without permission. Without specifics on the claimed violation, the Ministry of Tourism is arguing that it is “unable to defend” itself against the lawsuit by Mrs Sherman and AK Fortyseven Records, thereby giving the southern Texas district court sufficient grounds to dismiss the action.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

WHERE HAS MY ATTENTION SPAN GONE?

SEE PAGE EIGHT

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PAGE 2, Thursday, March 22, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

50 RAINCOATS DONATED FOR SCHOOL CROSSING GUARDS THE City of Freeport Council were presented with 50 raincoats for school crossing guards on Wednesday. Island Luck Cares Foundation made the donation at the City of Freeport Council office in the Regent Centre.

FROM left, Ravano Ferguson, councillor; Earl Neely, deputy chief councillor, and Kendal Culmer, chief councillor of City of Freeport.

Photo: Denise Maycock/Tribune Staff

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, March 22, 2018, PAGE 3

CHARGED WITH KILLING BODYBUILDER

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A 43-YEAR-OLD woman was arraigned in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with the murder of a former Bahamian bodybuilder and powerlifter last weekend.

Tracy Pratt, of Miller’s Heights, stood before Deputy Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain on a single count of murder stemming from the March 17 incident.

It is alleged that on the day in question, Pratt murdered Fitzroy Melbourne, otherwise known as Paul Melbourne.

Melbourne, a 70-year-old to May 15 for service of a man known for his ath- voluntary bill of indictment letic prowess, was killed on (VBI).

Saturday at his home on Prior to her being forMcKinney Drive off Car- mally remanded, her michael Road after arguing attorney Tonique Lewis with a woman. told Dep. Chief Magistrate When officers arrived at Swain that her client had the scene, they found him been experiencing stomach with stab wounds about his pains as a result of a cancerbody. ous tumour she had in her He was taken to the appendix. hospital by emergency As a result, she asked medical services personnel, that her client be allowed to but was later pronounced seek medical attention. dead. Police suspected Dep Chief Magistrate Melbourne was arguing Swain noted the submiswith the woman when he sions and made an order for was stabbed.

Pratt to be seen by a medic Pratt was not required to upon her admission to the enter a plea to the charges Bahamas Department of and the case was adjourned Correctional Services.

TRACEY PRATT, 43, outside court yesterday.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

MANSLAUGHTER APPEAL REJECTED

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A CONVICT’S decision not to pursue his denial of the opportunity to be heard on an appropriate sentence for manslaughter before the London-based Privy Council proved “fatal” to his recent bid to challenge it on the grounds that it was unconstitutional, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Former Appellate President Dame Anita Allen, along with fellow Justices Jon Isaacs and Roy Jones, said Phillip White’s decision not to pursue the “alternative remedy of a further appeal” to the country’s highest court proved detrimental to his recent submissions that he should have been allowed to seek a constitutional remedy for the appellate court’s previous failure to allow him to make submissions on sentencing for the 1989 death of Leroy Wayne Wilson.

White had previously attempted to appeal his being denied the opportunity to make submissions before the appellate court on an appropriate sentence for Wilson’s death, and had sought to do so via a Constitutional motion before Justice Jon Isaacs, then a senior Supreme Court judge, and then Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Stephen Isaacs just months later.

Both attempts were unsuccessful, and for the same reasons: that those judges did not have the power to interfere with a sentence imposed by the higher appellate court. That resulted in White appealing the latter judge’s decision on the matter before the very court that imposed the life sentence, the Court of Appeal.

However, the appellate judges, in a written ruling, dismissed White’s appeal of ACJ Isaacs’ decision not to interfere with his life sentence for the reasons given, and suggested that he should have instead taken the constitutional issue up before the Privy Council subsequent to being sentenced in 1993.

Thus, they dismissed White’s appeal against his life sentence and re-affirmed ACJ Stephen Isaacs’ decision not to interfere with same.

On March 25, 1993, White was convicted for the murder and attempted armed robbery of Leroy Wayne Wilson, who was shot twice as White attempted to rob him and his wife on March 21, 1989.

White was consequently sentenced to death for the murder conviction and 20 years imprisonment for the attempted armed robbery.

White appealed his conviction and sentence on June 27, 1994. The Court of Appeal, differently constituted, allowed the appeal, quashed the murder conviction, and set aside the death sentence.

The appellate court thus changed the sentence to manslaughter and commuted his punishment to life imprisonment. However, White did not have the benefit of making submissions about an appropriate sentence in the circumstances of his case.

At a re-sentencing hearing in May 2014 before

then-Senior Justice Jon Isaacs, the court maintained that as White had already been sentenced by the appellate court, he had no jurisdiction to interfere with the sentence that was passed.

On November 2014, White filed an originating Notice of Motion under Articles 28, 17, 19 and 20 of the Bahamas Constitution. That Notice of Motion was heard before thenSenior Justice Stephen Isaacs, and again White’s application was dismissed on the grounds that he had no jurisdiction to overturn a sentence passed by the higher appellate court.

On January 18, 2017, White filed an amended application appealing the dismissal of his constitutional application before Justice Stephen Isaacs, claiming that he was denied the opportunity to make submissions regarding his sentence for manslaughter in accordance with the Privy Council’s decision in the case of Dominique Moss.

White originally filed two grounds of appeal, but at the hearing on March 20, 2017, he withdrew the second ground. However, he invited the appellate court to re-sentence him or remit the matter to the Supreme Court for sentencing if it found favour with his submissions.

White complained that the learned judge failed to consider whether his constitutional right to be heard had been breached by the failure of the Court of Appeal to give him an opportunity to make submissions on his sentence.

His attorney, Christina Galanos, submitted that Justice Stephen Isaacs

failed to properly consider White’s constitutional application on whether his right to be heard before sentencing had been breached by the Court of Appeal’s decision. She further submitted that the judge had made no ruling on the constitutionality issue raised by her client.

To support her submissions, Ms Galanos relied on two cases: Lockhart v The Attorney General, where Justice Stephen Isaacs overturned a Court of Appeal sentence in a constitutional application on the grounds that there was a breach of procedural fairness; and Cordell Farrington v The Queen, where former appellate Justice Abdulah Conteh set aside a sentence passed by the appellate court and referred the case to the Supreme Court for sentencing in accordance with the case of Dominique Moss.

Meanwhile, Crown prosecutors Jacqueline Forbes-Foster and Akeyra Saunders submitted that White’s application should be dismisses as ACJ Stephen Isaacs did not have the power to set aside a lawful sentence passed by the appellate court.

However, the appellate judges maintained in their written ruling that the appellate court has no

jurisdiction to “re-hear an appeal from its own decision”.

Additionally, the ruling said the proviso to Article 28(2) of the Bahamas Constitution “restricts the use by any court of the constitutional remedy where there remains alternate means of redress”.

“In any event, this court has no jurisdiction to rehear an appeal from its own decision,” the ruling said.

“The right of this appellant to appeal against a decision of this court lies with the Privy Council. Where a court has convicted and sentenced a defendant, it has no further jurisdiction to deal with the matter”.

“In my view, the fact that the appellant had an alternative remedy of a further appeal to the Privy Council and chose not to pursue that remedy is fatal to his argument that he ought to have been allowed to seek a constitutional remedy,” Justice Jones wrote. “This court has no jurisdiction to re-open a matter once it has recorded a conviction and sentenced an appellant.

“It is for these reasons that I dismiss the appellant’s appeal against sentence and affirm the decision of Stephen Isaacs, Senior Justice in the court below.”

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PAGE 4, Thursday, March 22, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

The Tribune Limited NULLIUS ADDICTUS JURARE IN VERBA MAGISTRI “Being Bound to Swear to The Dogmas of No Master”

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SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH,

jrolle@tribunemedia.net

Publisher/Editor 1903-1914 Kt., O.B.E., K.M., K.C.S.G., (Hon.) LL.D., D.Litt .

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Working for a more efficient civil service THERE are those Bahamians who say that they are unhappy with the new government, because, after ten months in office, little has been done to turn the country around. Of course, the former government having left behind millions in unpaid bills so that there is nothing with which “to turn it around”, are encouraging these thoughts to try to cover their failed five years in office and create further confusion going forward.

The Christie government introduced VAT vowing that every penny collected from the pockets of Bahamians would go to reducing the national debt. Instead, not only has the national debt increased, but nothing has been left to carry on the needed repairs of a crumbling infrastructure or to satisfy unpaid bills.

Instead, the PLP government seemed to have gone on a spending spree with the disappearance of VAT and an increased national debt. The debt, instead of going down with the injection of VAT, climbed from $3.9 billion to more than $6.5 billion under the PLP. A spending spree was had by all.

“When I mention that we faced a bare cupboard last May, I was not speaking in jest, for there is no humour in the fiscal morass we inherited – and the one that so severely constrains the room in which we have to manoeuvre,” Finance Minister Peter Turnquest told the House.

Recently, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands announced that the planned clinic for Palmetto Point, Eleuthera, would have to be cancelled for lack of funds.

Instead, he said, it would be cheaper to purchase and outfit an existing building than to build a $27m clinic – funds this government does not have. And so, although the PLP had already paid the contractor $535,348.77 on a $929,875 contract, the FNM will pay the remaining $394,526.23 to end the contract.

Asked if he believed the money was wasted, all Dr Sands would say was: “We got a nice hole.”

Even though the “nice hole” on which the clinic was to have been built has been paid for there is not enough money left to build the clinic. And so Minister Sands took the obvious way out to provide Palmetto Point residents with a functioning clinic. If the PLP had been serious about the clinic, it would have completed it. However, it was probably another election gimmick to win the people’s vote. It won’t have been the first time. We recall an Out Island bye-election some years ago when the people were promised electric lights if the PLP candidate won. Trucks, utility poles and other equipment were barged from Nassau to the island, all ready to erect light poles after the election — that is, if the PLP won. The PLP did win, but the equipment remained rusting on the roadside. The promise was never kept - at least by that government.

Today’s FNM government is now being criticised for trying to trim the civil service wage bill, which costs the Bahamian taxpayer more than $650m a year. The civil service is made up of many talented, hard working Bahamians, who serve the public well.

However, it is also made up of those who are just taking up space - they are either indifferent or incompetent and should not be there. The government is trying to relieve Bahamian taxpayers of this burden and are now being criticised for it.

“We’re just verifying that we’re not paying phantoms,” Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest told Tribune Business. “We want to do our best with this verification exercise so that we can clean up the payroll, and know who we’re dealing with and where they are.”

Stories of persons collecting more than one salary, and the continued presence on payroll of persons who are either deceased, retired or have left the Government’s service, have been rife within the public sector, Tribune Business reported.

There are countless tales of persons who only appear once a month to collect a cheque, or who are just seen “clocking in/clocking out” at the beginning and end of the working day after spending time on another job or in their own business.

In 1988 – 30 years ago – Sean McWeeney, then a Senator and chairman of the PLP, speaking at the party’s 33rd annual convention, told his party that “the civil service tree has just too many dead branches, and it is high time we shook up that tree good and proper to bring those dead branches down where they belong.” He said “the unhappy fact of the matter is that not only are there too many people in the civil service, there are too many people doing nothing in the civil service.”

And then there were Bahamian legislators like former Bahamasair chairman Philip Bethel, MP for Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, who had the nerve to announce from a public platform that “God gave this country to the PLP” and in 1991 admit that under his chairmanship, Bahamasair had become “almost a social service.” He boasted that he put any Family Islander on Bahamasair’s payroll, qualified or not. “They have a nickname for me, ‘Bro,’” he said proudly. “‘Bro, aint nothing you could do for Sally? Aint nothing you could do for Harry?’ You know how it is, I say well, you know I am going to try help you,” and qualified or not, they were added to Bahamasair’s payroll, and the Bahamian people paid. He was not the only MP who operated that way, but so far the only one naive enough to admit it.

Today, the new government is attempting to “shake off the dead branches in the civil service” – as recommended by a PLP chairman 30 years ago — so surely the complaints now being heard cannot be coming from the corner of the defeated PLP, which had added 9,000 persons to the public payroll last year – the final year of their government. So far the FNM government with its streamlining efforts has been able to cut about $75 million from the civil service payroll.

And, who has benefitted? Eventually it will be the complaining Bahamian people for whom this money will be used to purchase much needed equipment, rebuild the islands’ infrastructure and provide the required clinics and medical staff.

There are those who complain that the FNM government is busy firing PLPs from government service. Many leaving the government payroll are either retiring or have come to the end of their contracts - in other words, although their leaving has contributed to reducing the payroll, they were not fired. However, as the Public Service Ministry tries to streamline the service — finding that an estimated 70 per cent of persons employed by the Christie government were not vetted by the Public Service — it can be presumed that they were given jobs, not because they were qualified, but because they were PLPs. The majority were just vetted when the FNM took office and at least 50 of them have not passed the vetting process. Garden Hiils MP Brensil Rolle has said his Ministry was advised by the police that these persons should not be consider for employment. This goes to show the lack of respect that the PLP government had for us hardworking Bahamians, who were being forced to pay for persons who should not have been employed. And so when firing time came, it was obviously PLPs who were being fired, not because they were PLP, but because they were not qualified.

Surely, the PLP would not want us to open our PLP files, where it will be found that the PLP government and its various ministers made it clear that their firings were not because those being fired were not qualified, but because they were FNM. A PLP minister, now deceased, announced in making his decisions that he was “only checking for PLPs” - obviously the rest of us be damned.

So Bahamians stop complaining, your country is critically ill — it is now up to each and every one of you to join with those who are trying to give it new life.

In the end just remember we are neither FNM nor PLP, first and foremost we are Bahamians.

Christian Council against poor EDITOR, The Tribune.

SINCE May 10, 2017, Bahamians from all walks of life have never seen the kind of insensitivity, cold and callous treatment ever experienced from any government. The Hubert Alexander Minnis led government has induced the most pain ever endured at any time on his people.

The sad part is that no one can say that this is a colour problem. A black government has tortured and punished its own people, the same people that were promised better.

It is a forgone conclusion that more people are unemployed in The Bahamas than at anytime in our history. It is true that more people have been fired by any government in our history. The FNM are bragging and celebrating, every

disappointed that the reason for the silence is because of promised Crown land or more placement letters@tribunemedia.net on lucrative boards. They time more are sent home should be leading the way in screaming at the governhollering.

But the real astonish- ment against the injustice.

They have brought a new ing revelation is that the moral authority, the church, meaning to “selling their has been so compromised souls to the devil.”

The least we would that “not a dog say bow”.

The Christian Council can expect is that someone involve themselves in every would gather the courage issue, but no member of the and return to the old gatecouncil has “cracked their post and attempt to be teeth” on the human suffer- Christlike.

Remember Jesus said, “If ing that is being meted out you do it for least of these, from the mass firings.

I dare anyone to say that you did if for me”.

I fight for the weak, the the church really cares about the disgraceful policy that voiceless, the frightened, is being implemented by the politically terrified and the FNM government. The the poor.

Christian Council had many IVOINE W. opportunities to offer their comment but showed no INGRAHAM Nassau, courage by keeping silent.

March 19, 2018 I would be so

LETTERS

Stopping illegal migrants at Inagua EDITOR, The Tribune.

where every Haitian sloop carrying migrants must FRED Mitchell is still pass to gain access to the punch-drunk from the dev- archipelago. astating defeat of his party With modern surveillance in the last election and equipment and resources his own surprising defeat for the Defence Force and in the Fox Hill Constitu- the Immigration Departency. That must be why he ment, no slow-moving does not seem to be able Haitian boat should be able to collect his thoughts in a to get past Inagua underational way. tected and sail politely up But in spite of what through the islands to land Mr Mitchell says, it was a at Coral Harbour. That’s brilliant move by Prime disgraceful. They should Minister Minnis and his Government to send a and must be stopped at Magistrate to Inagua to Inagua and returned to deal with the latest lot of Haiti.

That will save the country Haitians trying to enter the many millions in detention Bahamas illegally.

Furthermore, I commend and repatriation costs and the Prime Minister for will discourage this illegal tackling this vexing prob- activity. It will also help the lem head-on after years of local economy of Inagua. If much talk by many people. Dr Minnis and his GovernIt is a great idea to have a ment can accomplish this, detention centre at Inagua, they will be doing a great our southernmost island service to the country and

the Bahamian people will be forever grateful to them.

OLD TIMER Nassau, March 21, 2018

Thank you, Fred EDITOR, The Tribune Re: Fast track justice sends illegals home.

The Tribune, March 15, 2018.

THANK you Fred Smith, QC, for doggedly ensuring that our law is upheld for illegals - and thereby upheld for all of us.

KEN W KNOWLES, MD Nassau, March 19, 2018.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, March 22, 2018, PAGE 5

fro m page o ne

catastrophe waiting to happen”.

And recent fires in the Mud have further compounded the need for this menacing problem to be addressed in the long term.

“People could actually die,” he said.

“In some of these communities there isn’t one single home built to code, so the question is how we can go about addressing this matter in a way that is humane and considerate to the persons living in here?” he questioned.

Referring to makeshift power generating systems scattered around the muddled communities, Mr Foulkes said: “Just on this visit today, I saw three major generators that had 20 to 50 different lines connected to that generator.”

When asked by The Tribune for a timeline of the government’s efforts in Abaco, Mr Foulkes said the Minnis administration doesn’t intend to “storm in”.

Rather, according to Mr Foulkes, the government intends to move with a level of “calm and decency”.

In addition to the 11 shanty towns in New Providence – eight of which are in the southwest part of the island and the remaining three in the eastern district, there are four shanty town communities in Grand Bahama and several in North Eleuthera, North Andros and Abaco.

The shanty town committee is comprised of 30 members from various government departments, ministries and law enforcement agencies.

Shanty towns census unveiled There are also some instances, he said, where the land on which homes are now standing is held on a farming lease.

While there is no clear indication at this point when the exercise will be completed in New Providence, the minister said census officials will focus their attention on the Family Islands when this is done.

In the lead up to the census exercise, he said a training session began yesterday morning for the 11 teams in Nassau tasked with the information collection. This is in an effort to ensure the elimination of the shanty towns and their residents are handled as sensitively as possible, he said.

This comes after the committee toured the Farm Lands, Sand Banks, the Mud and Pigeon Peas shanty towns in Abaco where they got a sobering picture of the urgent need to overhaul these areas. “(There are) four persons on each team and each team comprises of a security officer, someone who speaks creole and also a female. They are from the Department of Immigration, the Royal Bahamas Police Force and also the Department of Social Services, the Ministry of Works and also the Ministry of Health,” Mr Foulkes said when he was contacted yesterday and asked of the work of the shanty town committee.

LABOUR Minister Dion Foulkes during a recent tour of shanty towns in Abaco.

“They are going to do a complete survey. The Department of Statistics is going to get a survey going for us and they are having a training session tomorrow (Thursday) and after that training session they are going to begin to survey all of the 11 shanty towns in Nassau beginning on Saturday.

“The purpose of the survey is to ascertain exactly how many residents are in each shanty town,

their ages, how many are in school, how many are working, (and) any disability issues. There are quite a few questions and this is to get a good idea of what we are dealing with.”

Asked of the ownership of the land where the shanty towns are established, he said: “All of the major shanty towns are formerly farms and as the farms closed the workers on the farm stayed on the land.

“Most of these developed

when there were no subdivisions in these areas like on Carmichael Road. There was just mass land out there, a lot of farms. It isn’t like it is today.

“Same thing out in Fox Hill but the farms closed down and the land was converted into subdivisions and formed around the shanty towns as opposed to the shanty towns forming in the subdivisions.”

“At the end of the day we want to deal with this with

extreme sensitivity. We are not going to do anything during the academic year to disrupt the kids who are in school, so whatever we do is going to be done during the summer months,” he said.

On Sunday Mr Foulkes was visibly shocked by much of what he saw in the Abaco shanty towns.

At the Marsh Harbour government complex following Sunday’s tour, Mr Foulkes insisted all of the areas seen were a “major

FOUR HAITIANS ‘TRIED TO LEAVE COUNTRY WITH $33,000’

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribu ne Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FOUR Haitian nationals, two women and two men, are due to stand trial in a month after denying allegations they attempted to leave the country with over $33,000 in “foreign currency” earlier this week.

Amonnese Massillon, 49, her 22-year-old daughter Kerlande Ornelus, along with 49-year-old Luders Augustin and 24-year-old James Joseph stood before Deputy Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain charged with one count each of attempted exportation of restricted goods.

It is alleged that on March 20, while at the domestic/

international departure lounge at the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA), Massillon and Ornelus attempted to export foreign currency amounting to $14,533 in cash.

Joseph was accused of attempting to export $8,435 in cash, while Augustin was accused of attempting to export $10,342 in cash. The total they are alleged to have attempted to export is $33, 310.

The Crown maintains the charges are in contravention of the conditions regulating the exportation of restricted goods, imposed by regulation 20 of the Exchange Control Regulations, and contrary to Section 114(2)(c) of the Customs Management Act chapter 293 and Section

83(2) of the Penal Code.

With the assistance of an interpreter all four, represented by attorney Bjorn Ferguson, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

According to Mr Ferguson, the four were originally planning to go to Haiti to attend a funeral for Mrs Massillon’s husband, with the money purportedly to assist with the funeral expenses.

Due to their not guilty pleas, the matter was adjourned to April 20 for trial. Police prosecutor Assistant Superintendent Clifford Daxon did not object to bail for the four accused, who are here on either work visa (Joseph, Augustin and Ornelus) and/or residency permit

(Massillon).

As such, bail was set to $2,000 for each defendant.

Prior to the end of the arraignment, Mr Ferguson indicated his clients’ intentions to travel to Haiti to

attend the funeral, set for Saturday, however, he said his clients’ travel documents were in police custody.

Dep Chief Magistrate Swain told him that if he can supply her with a travel

itinerary as well as a death certificate concerning Mrs Massillon’s husband, she would be willing to expedite the process of having their documents returned to them.

PAGE 6, Thursday, March 22, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

COMMODORE BACKS RAISING RETIREMENT AGE

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Repo rter r wells @tribunemedia.net

ROYAL Bahamas Defence Force Commodore Tellis Bethel yesterday called considerations to extend the mandatory retirement age of enlisted officers from 55 to 60 “necessary” to offset the personnel shortfalls being experienced.

In a statement to The Tribune, Commodore Bethel said the suggestion, if sanctioned, would greatly minimize the loss of expertise as the mandatory age for retirement is currently 55.

Adding to this challenge, he said, are plans to develop the Defence Force’s bases in Great Inagua and Ragged Island, and the intention

COMMODORE TELLIS BETHEL to expand its bases in the northern Bahamas as part of the Force’s decentralisation programme.

An extension to the retirement age was suggested by National Security Minister Marvin Dames at the RBDF’s annual church service earlier this month.

Commodore Bethel said the Ministry of National Security, upon the recommendation of the minister, has also authorised the RBDF to augment its recruitment programmes.

To that end, Commodore Bethel said the RBDF successfully secured 120 applicants for its recruitment class in January, essentially doubling its recruitment intake for a single entry.

In his initial comments back on March 11, Mr Dames said his office was working in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General, with a view to increasing the retirement age for the RBDF. At the time of his speech, Mr Dames said it was important for officials to

take all of the necessary steps to alleviate the “brain drain” being experienced by the RBDF. Moreover, Mr Dames said he also advised the backlog of promotions, particularly that of junior rate corps, to be reviewed and addressed forthwith.

Additionally, he also authorised a review of the allowances, additional qualification pay, sea pay, air pay and other allowances for members of the Defence Force, which he said was “long overdue”.

He said the Minnis administration was of the view that succession planning and training go hand-in-hand.

He noted that towards that end, steps were also being undertaken to transform the training

department into an accredited institution for the training of quality officers and marines.

“This military institution will focus on the development of character and leadership, management and supervisory, and professional and technical skills for members of the Force,” he said.

“I can also report that the Force has already commenced the first phase of development of its Naval-Infantry School, with the intention of making it a regional centre of excellence for amphibious military training.”

Minister Dames said that, when expanding transnational criminal networks are taken into consideration against the

backdrop of The Bahamas’ geographical challenges and ever-stretching resources, the need for even greater collaboration with local and regional partners to minimise their threats to national security was clearly evident.

“To mitigate these threats, our Government through one of its policy directives is moving towards the establishment of a Multi-agency Law Enforcement Coastal Security Programme to include the RBDF, RBPF, HMC and BID,” he said.

“This multi-agency programme, will be responsible for conducting onshore/offshore patrols.

“We must better secure our borders. The status quo is no longer acceptable,” Mr Dames added.

MINNIS ROUNDS ON CRITICS OF LABOUR ON THE BLOCK SCHEME

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter kr ussell@tribunemedia.net PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis has hit back at critics of his administration’s Labour on the Block initiative, which has assisted approximately 1,000 people with jobs.

“Those who have criticised the programme for political reasons should be embarrassed for attacking an initiative that is empowering so many Bahamian families,” Dr Minnis said during his mid-year budget contribution earlier this week.

The initiative has seen a large turn out every time it has been hosted and paints an accurate picture of the state of joblessness in the country.

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However, some have questioned the sectors benefitting from the exercise and whether these jobs are long-term or sustainable.

However, Labour Minister Dion Foulkes said these employment opportunities are “definitely” long-term.

“I can say the majority of them are in the construction industry and the hospitality industry,” the minister told The Tribune yesterday.

“Also landscaping accounts for about over 100 of them. In addition to hospitality and construction they have the bulk. There were also two jewellery stores that hired quite a lot.

I think over 30 people were hired by those stores.

“Security companies as well - one hired about 15 in Nassau and in Grand Bahama two security firms, hired about 10.”

He continued: “A large manufacturer in the food services industry. One hired 25 as well as a local grocer hired about 10.”

(But) I would say the hospitality industry is close to 500 jobs and construction close to 300.”

Banks, food service establishments, landscaping companies as well as entertainment entities also took on new workers.

As if these were long term sustainable positions, he said: “Yes, definitely.

These are jobs at major hotels some people also went to work in Exuma. So, yes, these are permanent jobs.”

Another Labour on the Blocks event will be held on Saturday at Windsor Park Wulff Road and East Streets.

Last month Robert Farquharson, director of labour, told Tribune Business the department had registered 2,500 job seekers due to the event.

This is in an effort to aggressively dent the Bahamas’ 10 per cent unemployment rate, he said.

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, March 22, 2018, PAGE 7

Bowe voices doubts over Oban deal’s financing from page one When he spoke in parliament Tuesday, Dr Minnis made no mention of financing for the project.

During the “ceremonial” Heads of Agreement signing event on February 19, however, he said the company displayed proof of financing during the government’s due diligence efforts. In citing mistakes Tuesday he claimed the administration made, he said more due diligence could have been done.

Funding concerns were the chief reason the project went nowhere under the last Ingraham Administration. Former State Minister for Legal Affairs in the Christie administration, Damian Gomez, said yesterday the PLP had similar concerns, hence the project’s failure to proceed.

GOWON BOWE Mr Bowe said: “(The prime minister’s) choice of words as it relates to proof of funding may be one that is a bit aggressive. There is a distinction between the developer demonstrating agreements in principle from various investment houses verses those investment groups coming on board and saying we will provide the

MAN WHO SET HIMSELF ON FIRE DIES IN HOSPITAL

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net

THE man who set himself on fire earlier this month in Eleuthera has died, the Royal Bahamas Police Force has confirmed.

Shortly before 9pm on March 1, Devon Leroy Forbes was outside a laundromat in Eleuthera when he poured a flammable substance over his head and set himself alight.

Superintendent Shanta Knowles told The Tribune the day after the incident Forbes possibly set himself aflame following a “domestic dispute”. Although bystanders attempted to douse the flames, Forbes suffered extreme burns to his face and upper body.

He was airlifted to Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau for treatment.

Chief Superintendent Stephen Adderley, of the Governor’s Harbour Police Station, confirmed to The Tribune yesterday that Forbes was later flown to a hospital in Colombia for further treatment. Forbes passed away there due to complications from his injuries.

On March 2, Chief Supt Adderley described the initial incident to The Tribune, saying: “We received a report of a male who had set himself afire at a local Laundromat.”

“When we arrived we discovered a male lying in the

parking lot who was suffering from burns to his face and both arms and chest.”

“And speaking to nearby witnesses, they informed us that he had a conversation with his ex-girlfriend.

“Words were exchanged, and as a result he took a bottle of substance and poured it over his head.”

Supt Adderley continued: “One of the bystanders attempted to assist in [preventing] him from harming himself. But within a quick second he had lit the substance and it caught afire.

And as a result nearby persons doused the flames using blankets and some soil.”

“As a result of that he received extensive burns to his face and upper arms.”

The incident went viral on social media. On March 6, a GoFundMe was created on behalf of Forbes to raise money for his medical expenses. The goal on the crowdfunding site was set to $500,000. Named the “Leroy Devon Forbes Medical Expense”, the page raised $2,135 in 15 days.

Forbes’ death was lamented by Facebook users. One woman wrote: “Rest in peace schooly Devon Forbes for we don’t know what all you were thinking or what was going on but see you in Zion my brother sleep on.”

Another said: “They don’t know his story and didn’t know what he endured.”

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money for the project.

He continued: “Ninety percent of investment groups would say certain conditions must be met before funding will be released. An agreement in principle is not a guarantee of funding. Unless the principals of this project are a close-knit group of highly connected individuals prepared to put up the necessary financing on their own, then any kind of financing from investment groups would be subject to conditions.

“And one thing any investment group would consider is the cost of restoration associated with environmental impact assessments, which can be prohibitive for some projects.”

“Reading the tea leaves,” he said, “the project is a concept that is now being

fleshed out. The Heads of Agreement gives them two years to flesh out the material elements and there are still a lot of details to be completed.”

Experts yesterday said a commitment letter from a bank or banks showing provision for a line of credit to the developer could suffice as proof of funding.

Former State Minister for Finance James Smith said the company “could have put its capital into a company that could have been verified by auditors.”

But he said because the project is worth billions, showing proof of funding may “not be easy to do, especially for what looks like an unknown company.”

He said: “If Shell came in or Exxon, you’d get information from them because

they’re public companies.

With a new company, it’s very difficult. What the government needs to do in checking them out is certify the financial standing of the principals.”

Dr Minnis revealed the beneficial owner of Oban Energies is the K Family Irrevocable Trust, but he did not provide details about the people behind this trust.

“It maybe a confidentiality issue,” Mr Bowe said, “where certain conditions have to be met before a person would want to have their name associated with the project.”

He said: “The stronger a commitment to funding is obtained, the more willingness there typically is for owners to share their association with projects with the public as well as their sources of funding. (The

prime minister) should have been clearer about what is to be done in this regard. If money is in the bank account waiting for the project to commence, he should have said that. If it is subject to certain conditions before it could be accessed, that’s something that should’ve been shared.

If funding has to now be raised, that too should’ve been shared.”

Mr Bowe said a lack of proof of funding at this stage is not an “embarrassment.”

“It’s like Baha Mar in its initial stages; there is a commitment to commit,” he said. “There’s no use crying over spilt milk at this point. There’s at least been maturity in acknowledging things didn’t work as intended. What needs to be articulated now is what will be changed going forward.”

PAGE 8, Thursday, March 22, 2018 WHERE, oh where, did our attention spans go? I lost mine somewhere between the cell phone, Kindle, Surface and life. Hopefully, I did not put in the laundry with the week’s linens or sock it away in a drawer like I did one time with $100 bill that would have come in so handy had I remembered it when needed instead of years later by accident when I didn’t.

Losing the ability to focus on a single task or image and trying to understand how that will increase our restlessness going forward must be a secret fear among many of us. Will we resemble the stroke victim whose concentration levels are affected simply because we have allowed ourselves to be diverted with such ease?

Will we become ourselves because we get bored so quickly by what is in front of us and turn our attention to what we think could be in front of us next that would be better than what is there at the moment?

There is a growing body of work about attention span, particularly as it applies to distracted drivers, but also as it affects students. Every teacher wants to know what he or she is in for. It’s not like you can justify keeping a student after school or making them clean the bathroom because they looked from side to side seven times while swinging their leg at great pace while you are trying to explain the theory of everything.

‘How hard it is to focus on a single subject in an environment that still considers hyperactivity a condition which needs to be treated medically.’

On a personal level, I am interested in, fascinated with and obsessed by what grabs our attention and clings to it like a newborn to a mother’s tata.

Attention spans that used to allow us to accomplish entire works at one go are

THE TRIBUNE

shrivelling. We seem to live in a world of chunks of minisecond segments. We look at this, our eyes dart to that.

We click on social media and before it even loads, we impatiently move on to the next feed.

Even if you debunk the theory that was popular a few years ago that we humans now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish – goldfish, nine, humans eight seconds – it is hard to deny it’s difficult to concentrate as long as we used to. And are our periods of concentration drawing shorter and shorter?

Sure, we can talk about the distractions.

Not that you much care, but as a side note, I am distracted by the difference in the words used to define an interest in focusing attention - interested, fascinated and obsessed and wondering if some of the difference in the depth of those words is not defined by the superseding prepositions – interested in, fascinated with and obsessed by.

But back to how hard it is to focus on a single subject in an environment that still considers hyperactivity a condition which needs to be treated medically.

So what is attention span? The most common definition is the amount of dedicated time a person spends on a task without being distracted.

The first part is easy, concentrated time to complete.

The second part “without being distracted” is the challenge. Our ancestors who farmed or fished did not have the choices we have.

They checked the weather by looking at the sky, maybe tapping the barometer.

They did not feel compelled to log in for the full hourby-hour weather report, comparing predictions on wunderground.com, weatherchannel.com, windfinder. com, AccuWeather.com, intellicast.com, weatherbug. com or any of a thousand other .coms that provide weather information. Oh,

weather because you were going fishing.

Or think of this. When there was just one radio programme and US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt held his fireside chats, the entire family gathered around the brown Zenith machine with the large knobs. Ears and minds were glued to the sound of the voice his spoke and there had better not be another sound in the room.

Only then did the avid, fully engage listener know whether it had been a good or bad week or whether they were buying into FDR’s New Deal or not.

They hung on to every word and that became the dinner table topic and wherever else they could carry it. Why? Because that radio news, think of it as the precursor to talk radio, was their single source of information.

Some 40 years later in the 80s another American President Ronald Reagan embraced the power of a radio audience and held national Saturday radio chats.

Decades apart, both politicians knew they could capture attention because they were dealing with an undistracted audience. Listeners did not have dozens of news stations, hundreds of TV shows, and thousands of sources to choose from.

They did not have to decide as we do which to turn to before deciding there could be something better on another station or another site and going to that.

Now, clicking from station to station isn’t even enough variety. We do that while reading breaking news on our smart phone or yesterday’s in-depth coverage in the newspaper and wondering what else we can do at the same time like e-mail using our right hand, flip the newspaper page with our left elbow and keep our eyes glued to Facebook’s news feed.

If it is any consolation, there is one writer by the name of Shaun Buck who doesn’t buy all the distracted living theories. A contributor to Entrepreneur, Buck stands pretty much alone though his argument that we are not functionally distracted by our distractions is articulately stated. I appreciate his phrasing but I’m not

Where, oh where, has my attention span gone?

and then there’s the banner ads, news and countless distractions that can easily take you so far afield you find

yourself wondering if you shouldn’t just book that trip to Cat Island or Alaska while the rates are really good because they might go up tomorrow. Then you go to an airline website or Expedia or Kayak or one of another dozen sites that promise to let you know if the rates are really better today or you should wait.

Then you remember what you were looking for in the first place - checking the

LADIES more occupied in their phones than working out.

TOO many devices to pay attention to.

buying it.

What is fascinating is that even when presented with all the saturation of choices we have, with material flashing at us continually at dizzying speeds, human beings are such an incredibly adaptable species we are able to make the number of decisions we do a day. One estimate places it at 35,000.

Other research says that we make the wrong decision about one in 4.5 times. We don’t know if that means we regret it or we just make a left turn when a right turn would have been shorter and we did not stop to consider whether or not we regretted it because we have already moved on to something else.

So if we have all these choices right down to whether we want to watch Netflix, Hulu or YouTube videos, if we want to shop without speaking to another human being at Amazon or

Losing the ability to focus on a single task or image and trying to understand how that will increase our restlessness going forward must be a secret fear among many of us.

Walmart or we prefer Instagram to Pinterest, what do we do to improve our ability to focus on one task at one time?

It’s what they used to call stopping to smell the roses but if we did that now, we would probably find ourselves online wondering where the expression came from which would entice us to learn a little more about roses which we could do on an 800–flowers site and while we are there, we might just as well send flowers to someone we had been meaning to send flowers to forever.

So what do we do to ground ourselves again?

Here’s what another site says are eight easy things to do: meditate, exercise, stay hydrated, ask questions, listen to music, drink tea, take notes by hand, chew gum. That is about the weirdest list I have ever read in my life. I’d say if you want to focus, just live in the moment, one moment at a time. And, by the way, if you find my attention span, can you return it?

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, March 22, 2018, PAGE 9

Coco Cay’s critics ‘need to be cautious’ from page one Activist Heather Carey, of Raising Awareness about the Bahamas Landfill (RABL), denounced the project in a Facebook post, calling it another example of how the cruise ship industry does very little to benefit the Bahamas.

She wrote: “Royal Caribbean plans Massive Overhaul of Coco Cay. Dredging in order to accommodate the world’s largest cruise ships. A massive marine park. Helium Air Balloon Rides. A fresh water pool.”

“Sad. We cannot give away any more of our beautiful Bahamas to these bottomless pits.”

However, responding to those concerns, Mr Weech insisted the dredging needed to facilitate the new pier expansion was approved and carried out “some time back”.

Mr Weech indicated that operators of Coco Cay first contacted the BEST Commission in late 2015 on planes to expand its docking facility.

AN ARTIST’s impression of how Coco Cay would look.

He said the operators insisted the existing dock could no longer service the cruise line’s operations, which he said they claimed was expanding at the time.

“The problem of course was providing access to the

cay,” he said.

Mr Weech said the operators submitted its first EIA on the proposed expansion between late 2015 and early 2016; and received approval a few months later.

He added officials from

his office, including himself on a few occasions, visited the small cay to ensure all terms agreed to were being adhered to.

Further clarifying Coco Cay’s expansion Mr Weech said a second EIA was

carried out in May lst year after Royal Caribbean submitted plans to expand the existing operations and facilities.

“This is the proposal we are still working through,” he said.

“There is an existing landscape that they want to make adjustments to. There are facilities on the island that they want to improve on and they’ve approached us,” Mr Weech added.

That expansion, according to Royal Caribbean, includes “Daredevil’s Peak,” which will become North America’s tallest slide at 135 feet; a fully vertical, high-speed slide called the Screeching Serpent; 1600-foot-long zip line ending in a splash water landing; sports amenities and several beach areas.

Royal Caribbean president and CEO Michael Bayley, in the same USA Today article confirmed the project has been in development for three years.

He added once completed, Coco Cay will be unique for a cruise ship private island.

Royal Caribbean is expected to present its full plan for Coco Cay this evening during a town hall forum in Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands.

Officials from the BEST Commission are expected to attend.

GOMEZ: WHY NO MORE SALES OF CAYS TO PRIVATE BUYERS?

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribu ne Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORMER State Minister for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez called on Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday to explain why Crown cays won’t be sold to private buyers anymore.

Dr Minnis announced the policy shift in parliament during his mid-budget speech Tuesday. It is not clear if the cays will now be leased instead of sold.

Mr Gomez said: “We don’t even know if they have done a study to show whether this will impact government revenues at all, nor do we know if there will be leases.

“If these are uninhabited cays, what is the significance of keeping it uninhabited? Why is that such a big deal? They are changing the policy so why do they feel motivated to do this? When cays have been sold, in most cases the purchasers have developed the cay and created employment. There is that growth to the economy that you are now saying you are ending. That’s irrational.”

He continued: “It doesn’t seem to be a scientific approach he’s taken. In general they seem to have a knee jerk approach to their activities. If I were him, I would have given an historical overview of what was obtained from how many

purchases in a particular year so the public would at least have an idea about the significance to the public treasury of abandoning that project and adopting a different one.”

For his part, former Attorney General Alfred Sears praised Dr Minnis for his professed commitment to increased transparency in Crown land dealings. But he called on him to go a step further and divest himself of Crown land powers completely.

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for land,” he said.

“This prerogative power that two million plus acres of Crown land could be alienated from the Bahamian people at the discretion of one individual without any cabinet oversight or parliamentary oversight is inconsistent with modern democratic practices, accountability and transparency and the government in order to regain public trust should put all Crown land under a public authority guided by published policies from cabinet after consultation with civil society and an annual report of the lease and transfer of all Crown land should be gazetted and disclosed in an annual

report to the House of Assembly.

“There should also be a disclosure of all Crown lands that would have been disposed of in the last ten years, to whom and on what terms. Out of the controversy over Oban Energies we should begin to lay the foundation for the rational, transparent management of the natural resources of the commonwealth of the Bahamas which includes Crown land.”

In addition to ceasing the sale of Crown lands to private people, Dr Minnis said the government will “preserve the seabed for the Crown, approving only leases of it.”

The government, he said,

“will retain for the Crown a Crown reserve between ocean/sea, front/inland lake property, granted for private development where un-alienated Crown land exists at the seashore, to preserve windows to the sea and open green and beach front spaces for the enjoyment of the public.”

He also said the government will “regularise long-term occupation of Crown land developed or cultivated by individual Bahamians and/or families at concessionary rates” and make Crown land available to Bahamian nationals for residential, commercial and touristic development, particularly in the Family Islands.”

PAGE 10, Thursday, March 22, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

PERU PRESIDENT OFFERS HIS RESIGNATION

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Embattled President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered up his resignation Wednesday ahead of an impeachment vote, seeking to put an end to a debilitating political drama playing out just three weeks before the nation is set to host US President Donald Trump for a regional summit.

In a televised address, Kuczynski, with his cabinet standing behind him, said he didn’t want to become an obstacle to Peru’s development. He lashed out at opponents led by the daughter of former strongman Alberto Fujimori for plotting his overthrow with damaging leaks of confidential documents. Congress must still accept his resignation.

“I don’t want my country, nor my family, to continue suffering through the uncertainty of recent times,” he said.

OFFICIALS investigate a vehicle where a suspect in the bombings that terrorised Austin blew himself up as authorities closed in yesterday.

Photo: Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP

Austin bombing suspect kills himself as police close in PFLUGERVILLE, Texas Associated Press AS a SWAT team closed in, the suspected bomber whose deadly explosives terrorised Austin for three weeks used one of his own devices to blow himself up.

But police warned that he could have planted more bombs before his death.

Mark Anthony Conditt, an unemployed college dropout who bought bombmaking materials at Home Depot, was tracked down using store surveillance video, cellphone signals and witness accounts of a customer shipping packages in a disguise that included a blonde wig and gloves. His motive remained a mystery.

Police found the 23-yearold early yesterday at a

MARK ANTHONY CONDITT hotel in a suburb north of Austin. When the suspect’s sport utility vehicle began to drive away, they followed.

Conditt ran into a ditch on the side of the road, and SWAT officers approached.

That’s when he detonated a bomb inside the vehicle, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said.

Law enforcement officials did not immediately say whether Conditt acted

alone in the five bombings in the Texas capital and suburban San Antonio that killed two people and badly wounded four others.

Investigators released few details about Conditt, except his age and that he was white. Neighbours say he was home schooled.

He later attended Austin Community College from 2010 to 2012, but he did not graduate.

In posts dated from 2012, a blogger who identified himself as Mark Conditt wrote that gay marriage should be illegal. He also called for the elimination of sex offender registrations and argued in favor of the death penalty. Of gay marriage, Conditt wrote: “Homosexuality is not natural.”

BOKO HARAM RETURNS NIGERIA GIRLS - BUT WARNS FOR THEM NOT TO GO TO SCHOOL DAPCHI, Nigeria Associated Press

BOKO Haram Islamic extremists brought back nearly all of the 110 girls they had kidnapped from a boarding school last month, dropping them off in the middle of the night Wednesday with a warning: “Don’t ever put your daughters in school again.”

Several of the girls interviewed by The Associated Press said they had been traveling for days before the convoy of vehicles arrived in the centre of the town of Dapchi around

2am. Residents who had fled upon hearing that Boko Haram was headed their way watched from hiding as dozens of girls descended from the vehicles apparently unharmed.

“We were freed because we are Muslim girls and they didn’t want us to suffer.

That is why they released us,” said Khadija Grema, one of the freed girls who said a Christian classmate remained captive.

The extraordinary development brought elation to most of the families, but more heartache for the relatives of the six girls still

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unaccounted for. The sister of one girl fainted Wednesday upon hearing that she was not among those freed.

One 14-year-old released by the fighters told reporters that five girls had died.

She did not provide other details and it was not immediately possible to verify her claim.

The abductions in Dapchi have evoked painful memories of the tragedy in Chibok, where 276 girls were kidnapped from their boarding school. Nearly four years later, about 100 of them have never returned home. Many had been forced to marry their captors and had children fathered by them.

The Nigerian government denied that it had paid a ransom or made a prisoner swap in exchange for the girls’ freedom.

The girls were released “through back-channel efforts and with the help of some friends of the country, and it was unconditional”, Information Minister Lai Mohammed told journalists in the capital, Abuja.

“No money changed hands. They only had one condition — that they will return them to where they took them.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, March 22, 2018, PAGE 11

Henfield surprise at Office of the Spouse criticism

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net FOREIGN Affairs Minister Darren Henfield yesterday defended the decision to establish the Office of the Spouse insisting yesterday the function would further enhance the work of the Ministry of Social Services.

He said quite frankly, the criticism surrounding the soon to be established Office of the Spouse was “surprising”.

Asked about its funding, Mr Henfield did not readily have this information on hand, but said: “Funds were set aside but I am not sure how much it was. I would have to look at the Cabinet paper for that. But it will be used for ancillary things and meetings or whatever that kind of office is supposed to do.”

On Wednesday, The Nassau Guardian reported that Patricia Minnis, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ wife said the proposed budget for the office would be $10,000. She added it would be primarily used for “tea engagements”.

Mr Henfield also said: “She will use the weight of her office for issues concerning women. It’s always that you’re not doing enough for women. I am surprised at some of the stuff I am hearing because it’s always you’re not doing enough.

“We are doing new things and we expect that people will have to adjust to these things. We think we are doing this with the right motive, which is to progress the Bahamas in a positive direction and no one can deny adolescent pregnancy, the return and the rise and the rate of HIV and AIDS. That’s the kind of thing we just want to bring awareness to and we are happy that she is able to embrace that and use the weight of her office for that purpose.”

“I don’t see any kind of overlap, I see an enhancement of what we do and all

PATRICIA MINNIS, wife of Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, during a tour of Marina Village. the issues we face socially so that is always a positive direction to go,” he said in response to critics who have said the Office of the Spouse’s function will overlap with the Ministry of Social Services, particularly the Department of Gender and Family Affairs which evolved from the Bureau of Women’s Affairs to focus on families more broadly.

However, Englerston MP Glenys Hanna Martin said

the government should make clear how the Office of the Spouse will function.

She said: “I note that Mrs Minnis indicated that she’ll be utilising current resources that already exist, but I think that it still has to be a quantification whether it’s using resources that are being redirected or whatever it is. We have to have an understanding of what is comprised in this office.

“The concern I have and this is where I think it’s important for the government to avoid having too many voices stating definitively what is going to happen because Mrs Minnis indicated tea parties and it will be that type of thing and I think she also alluded to the wife of the prime minister of Malta who came in sometime in December.

But the prime minister has a budget, which would normally accommodate those kinds of functions.

“She is indicating tea parties but the minister said something different saying she will be engaging international agencies. What I am wondering is will that be via email or telephone?

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Will it involve travel? He seems to be saying one thing and she is saying something else.

“If it is what the minister says the question I would raise is is this currently under the remit of a minister who has responsibility to Cabinet and to Parliament so I am just wondering how the work of Mrs Minnis will coincide without creating collisions.”

Last September first ladies and spouses of heads of government of the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) launched its network,” Spouses of Caribbean Leaders Action Network (SCLAN)” to tackle issues related to the health and well being of women, adolescents and children in the Caribbean.

SCLAN is the advocacy and action platform to advance the Every Caribbean Women Every Caribbean Child (ECWECC) initiative, now renamed Caribbean Woman Caribbean Child (CariWaC)” Ms Kim Simplis Barrow,

Spouse of the Prime Minister of Belize and Special Envoy for Women and Children in Belize, was elected as the first chair of the network, while Sandra Granger, first lady of Guyana, was elected its vice chair.

Other members of the executive body are: Reema Carmona - Trinidad and Tobago; Martine Moise Haiti; and Juliet Holness of Jamaica.

Also at the launch were: Maria Browne, Antigua & Barbuda and Mrs Minnis.