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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Bahamian Politics
Tonight, we welcome people around the country watching and listening to this event via social media platforms. I first want to thank you all for your presence here tonight. We need your participation and thank you for tuning in. For those watching and listening I need you to do a favour and share this event on your social pages now. Share the links via your social media links. As an organisation, we in the PLP are continuing these exercises that engage Bahamians on the issues. Log onto our social media pages on Facebook or Instagram at Progressive Liberal Party or myplp, find the link and share it. Share it across your platforms. We are moving ahead with the process of crafting our Vision, Image and Message (VIM) for the PLP. VIM will become a watchword as we transpose our party into a battle ready machine. That vision involves this process to address reforms to our constitution. Those discussions are now being had in meetings around the country. Please join the discuss at PLP-Constitution-Discussions via our Facebook platform. Announcement to dates of those meetings are regularly posted. Share these discussion and weigh in on them because, this is your party to. Our Vision will also entail our policy on matters from Health to Education to Finance and so on. On every sector of our national life, we intend to produce a vision, we are going to image that vision and properly message that vision. Our proposal for reforms, with the input of progressive thinkers will become the core elements to the management of our party well into the future. As your servant, I expect to expand on these items of our Vision, Image and Message as we move around the country. I thank Dr. Marcus Bethell – former senator and Minister of Health for crafting these items which I have embraced. PLPs! The country is now catching up with the list of lies from the Minnis-led FNM Government! Everywhere we go the sad chorus of… “If I did only know…” is getting louder and louder. Bahamians are discovering that the LIES by FNM Government are not just a dream, but is reality! People are being hurt. Your friends are being victimized. And hardworking citizens all across the country are being sent home. Unemployment is up! And there are no plans for the future development in the pipeline. FNM lies about creating jobs have resulted in firing Bahamians on Friday and asking them to show up at Job Fairs on Saturday. They have no plan! You just cannot trust this Minnis-led FNM Government. FNM lies on the campaign about finding a Real Buyer for BahaMar have been silenced. They in the FNM went against Bahamians getting a job at Baha Mar before May 10th, but today, if you listen to Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar, Baha Mar is the best thing happening for The Bahamas. The FNM campaign of lies, fake news, catch phrases and deceptive political propaganda told the Bahamian people VAT Money was stolen – then after coming into power, even their Attorney General Carl Bethel said that too was a lie! Remember the lie from Finance Minister Peter Turnquest, who made the claim that he could not find 40 million dollars for Hurricane repairs? Imagine that…a professional accountant claiming he can’t find money. And then the following week, he too came back to the House to confirm that his statement was untrue, and the money was right in the Consolidated Fund. Turnquest should save himself from more embarrassment and resign. He has led the country to a EU Blacklist. And then blamed the OECD and the PLP for it. He has no shame! Don’t forget the lies they told on me now. Expensive audit reports for Bahamas Power and Light and Water and Sewerage they told nasty lies about me. Having their juvenile Executive Chairman grandstand in the Parliament. Well, I don’t play with ‘churrin’. They haven’t told us yet how much those Ernst and Young reports cost taxpayers. They refuse to tell us how the bidding processes of these audits were done. How one auditing firm got all the audit work by the Government? There is nothing transparent about this FNM Government! They refuse to answer questions. You just cannot trust them. By the time they came back to Parliament - not once but twice - The Minister of Works confirmed the lies told and apologized to me. He could have done that before the reports were allowed to be released. Reports which have failed to reach proper auditing standards. But at least he told the truth in the end. The lies of the FNM Government are catching up with them. And the People of the Bahamas are learning every day that is NOT THE PEOPLE’s TIME! It is not the People’s time as the Minnis Government cancelled the RISE programme affecting scores of Bahamians. It is not the People’s time when Minister Jeffery Lloyd could announce in Parliament that he will proceed to fire this week some 200 minimum wage workers – and tell the press he don’t care! It is not the People’s time. Remember when they told young people they will get free University Education when elected? Minnis and the boy from Bain Town was up and down on the campus telling young people who supported them free University Education was coming. But after elections scholarship were being cut, and fees gone up. What a LIE! Bahamians are learning that it is not the People’s time, particularly after the Renward Wells announced during the budget debate last week that BAMSI will not be allowed to expand its food production operation for which it is designed. He announced that the operation in North Andros would remain to lend technical support to local farmers. You think they have a plan to dismantle BAMSI? Remember now, this is the same Minister who recently traveled into CARICOM with the Prime Minister to tell Haitian farmers there they are ready to have their food on our plate by December 31st. It is not the People’s time with this FNM Government. I wonder where is Dr. Duane Sands these days? Where he is? You think he still performing surgeries? You think he still practicing medicine while neglecting the much-needed attention to the management of our health systems? You think he is somewhere hiding in secret meeting plotting to take the Prime Minister job? You think Dr. Sands was in that meeting in the East discussing the future of Minnis? On Monday, 12th of March a report by the Tribune revealed in the headline “Cash shortage leaves hospital staff having to ventilate by hand”. The story revealed the neglect at PMH. The paper exposed how the Intensive Care and Neonatal Intensive Care [where the babies are] could not find $14,000 to care for the sick in our country. And they say “It’s The People’s Time!” Now let’s put this in perspective. Here is a government that, since coming to power, has borrowed more than 1.7 billion dollars – yet – they are laying off staff, firing Bahamians, sending home scores of minimum wage workers and cannot find funds to purchase needed devices in the medical institutions of the nation? It’s not the People’s time! They have slowed/stopped/paused the construction of clinics in my constituency saying it is not necessary; and this week, the Prime Minister told the people in Exuma that space in the clinic there will now to be used to facilitate an office for him and his campaigners. Health care gone to da dogs! …. to da dogs …under the prime ministership of a doctor! But it gets worse. My teams have since paid a visit deep in the heartland of the Bahamian community of the Grove. There, I am advised that the Coconut Grove Clinic suspended its operations since late last year. No reason given. I am advised that scores of children in need of medical attention, pregnant mothers, and seniors from the area are now to find their needed medical assistance more than a mile away. Residents from the Grove must now make their way to the crowded Fleming Street or Blue Hill Roads clinics while the doors to assist the sick on Coconut Grove remain closed. It’s not the People’s time! Two doctors - one a Prime Minister and the other the Minister of Health, and yet, the doors of help and needed medical assistance in the most densely populated community of the Grove has been closed! Doors closed by this heartless bunch. It is NOT People’s time! PLPs! I must now weigh in on this Corrupt Oban Energies Deal. It has grabbed headlines for more than one month now and it gets worse by the day. Oh…What a web we weave when we seek to deceive. The Nassau Guardian this morning reported how Mr Peter Krieger and Satpal Dhunna were removed from the company register. The Prime Minister, this week, on 20 March, has entangled himself deeper in a bed of lies over this Oban fiasco. And I am going to ask again, who is the mystery man? – Who are the real players behind this deal? Mr. Prime Minister is the mystery man who brought you this project out of Grand Bahama? He must be known to you! Is he a relative? Mr. Prime Minister I am now learning some things about OBAN, which neither you nor your advisors have yet told you. But let me state some facts: One – The Minnis Government has signed a Heads of Agreement without an Environmental Impact Assessment. Two - the lead person on behalf of Oban Energies, Mr. Peter Krieger, never got any Agreement from the Ingraham Administration or the Christie Administration dating his idea as far back as 2009. Three - The proclaimed open, honest and transparent Hubert Minnis, in a move to distract the country from the trial of the Speaker, announced on February 14th, 2018 in a communication to Parliament the proposed signing of a Heads of Agreement of a 5 Billion Dollar Deal for Grand Bahama. The Prime Minister never told the House that the signing was to be a ceremonial signing. Four - Mr. Krieger, a man who we later learned confessed to crimes, was paraded as decent in the eyes of the public. Paraded live on TV with the Prime Minister himself knowing that Mr. Kreiger had misappropriated more than 3.7 million dollars worth of client funds. And was subsequently fine by Capital Markets regulator and watchdog, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States. Mr. Krieger also found his name deep in matters involving CLICO, which operated a PONZI Scheme with money belonging to the Bahamian people. Plenty Bahamians lost their money in Clico. This is who he signed a Heads of Agreement with – and guess what? On that signing with Hubert Minnis as witness – Peter Kreiger signed the name Satpal Dhunna. And so the Guardian reported both men have since resigned. But I doubt that to be the case because tonight. Right now at the St. Nicholas Anglican Church in High Rock Oban Energies President Satpal Dhunna is speaking about the project with residents from the area. Follow me now… Five – With the political fallout coming and the with revelations by the day from environmental groups and politicos around the country screaming, FNM Cabinet Ministers quickly fell insipidly into a code of silence. Romauld Ferreira the said Environment Minister - who was strip of his portfolio assignments months ago - told the press to do not ask him anything about Oban Energies! He directed them to the Prime Minister. What happened to all that mouth by Mr. Ferreira about Freedom of Information? What happened about Mr. Ferreira advocacy for keeping governments honest and accountable? What happened to his passion and his party’s mantra for being Responsible and Transparent? The Environment Minister silence is deafening. The Attorney General is mute. Peter Turnquest is lost for words even though it is his constituency to which the development is planned. And the rest of the shameless bunch can’t find a microphone to discuss the crisis now engulfing the FNM Government. And while this festers, with the missteps, corruption, wrapped in fraud no one can tell us where is the Public Land set to be given away to Oban Energies on East End Grand Bahama. Tonight is the first time residents are being presented with the plan. How many acres is to be given away? Whose land is it? Where is the funding for the Proposed Refinery? Why was it necessary to proceed with Heads of Agreement without an EIA study in the area, which sits on one of the most pristine ecological environments in the community of Grand Bahama? And my favourite question remains: Who is the mystery man and real owners of OBAN Energies? The suggestions of missteps by the Prime Minister fell short of answering any of these questions. And his communication opened new revelations. With an embezzler, a tax cheat, owing the United States government more than six hundred thousand dollars at his side the Prime Minister claims that Oban Energies Peter Kreiger had resigned from the company. I now ask the Prime Minister: Where is the proof? The Prime Minister also has claimed that Oban principal Satpal Dhunna signed the HOA on – [GET THIS NOW] Saturday February 10th. But the PM tabled a document by the Parliament showed a signing by Mr. Dhunna on February 19th. Mr. Dhunna who we know from his own writings was not in the country at the time. So, where is the signed February 10th Agreement confirmed by the Prime Minister in Parliament this week? Mind you I told the Prime Minister that he had time long before these developments to extricate himself from this deal. But you know, we are getting no answers from the man who flies around the world calling Bahamians corrupt! We get no answers from a Prime Minister who cannot defend Bahamians when foreigners [as like in the case of Royal Bank] attack Bahamians and call us corrupt! And this OBAN matter gets worse as new evidence has come to my attention. Prime Minister Minnis, I submit, has deceived Parliament! He has misled members. He has fabricated untruths and he has misled the Bahamian people on this OBAN issue. He announced that Mr. Peter Krieger of Oban Energies LLC had resigned from the company effective March 9th , 2018. He failed to show any evidence to the same and I now have new information, which makes questionable the statement by the Prime Minister. From the registered files of Oban Energies - Filings now in my possession reveal that Mr. Dhunna and Mr. Krieger were removed as managers, and that Oban Energies Management was added as manager to the registered company in Florida. However, in the articles of Amendment to the Articles of the Organization of Oban Energies registered document #L1600011652 Filed on March 12th, 2018 [last week Monday] at 12:41PM by the Secretary of State Tallahassee, Florida - the same address: 3804 PGA Blvd. Palm Beach Gardens Florida 33410 is given for both Mr. Peter Krieger, Mr. Satpal Dhunna and Oban Engeries Management. And more importantly all future correspondence in relation to Oban Energies was to be sent to Peter Kreiger – why if he resigned or had no further dealing with Oban – he remains the contact person for Oban – we fool eh? From this document supplied by the State of Florida, Mr. Peter Kreiger did sign Articles of Amendment to Articles of Organization of Oban on the 9th of March 2018. The Prime Minister is Lost! He is out to lunch! He has entangled his entire Government in a weave of deception and lies! Prime Minister Minnis has failed to do his due diligence! He witnessed fraud in the full glare of the press. He has reduced the Office of Prime Minister into a web of lies, deceits and deceptions. He has deceived the country! He has betrayed my beloved people of Grand Bahama. And I submit The Minnis Government has now engulfed itself in a web corruption and must do the honorable thing and RESIGN! RESIGN! RESIGN! REGSIGN! PLPs! PLP! PLP! Thank You! And God Bless the Commonwealth of the Bahamas!
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Nassau - Address by Hon. Philip “Brave” Davis, Q.C., M.P. Leader of the Official Opposition Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party on the occasion of A Public
Meeting; Thursday, 22th March 2018, 7:00 p.m. at Sadie Curtis Primary
School: