Multiple sources have revealed that senior members of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) were indeed responsible for thugs participating in the demonstration against the sale of 51 percent of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC).
PLP leaders orchestrated the recent disruptive demonstration and some protesters were promised $85 to participate, Labour Minister Dion Foulkes said yesterday in the Senate.
Foulkes is government leader in the Senate. Opposition Senate leader Allyson Maynard-Gibson objected to the remarks.
“That never happened. No operative of the PLP ever made any payment,” she said.
“I stand by my assertion that the Progressive Liberal Party and its members, including its leadership, which I saw, helped to orchestrate that demonstration,” Foulkes said during his contribution to the mid-year budget debate.
Foulkes claims that Barbara Pierre, the PLP’s secretary general, along with Obie Wilchcombe who is opposition leader in the House of Assembly, and MPs Melanie Griffin and Shane Gibson, were among those PLPs who played a role in orchestrating the chaotic February 23 demonstration.
The protest turned ugly when demonstrators fought with police and forcefully removed barricades police set up to block them from entering Parliament Square. during the protest. Many of the protestors were dressed in PLP attire.
The Police Staff Association has also said some of the protestors were criminals.
“It has been. reported by (the) Police Staff Association that persons were paid. Additionally, I am told some of the men were promised x amount and they did not get the amount that they were promised. They were promised $85 per person and some of them were paid $40 and that caused a big problem,” Foulkes said.
Mr Foulkes refused to withdraw his allegations against the PLP.
