The Tribune

THE PLP has sought to use personal attacks in an effort to deflect attention from the serious allegations against Deputy House Speaker Dion Smith, the opposition charged yesterday.

The FNM noted that in a press statement issued late last week, the governing party attacked opposition leader Dr Hubert Minnis, who did nothing but point out how damaging to the institution of Parliament the claims could be, if proven to be true.

He called on Mr Smith to step down until the truth is made clear.

In documents filed with the Supreme Court, the Deputy Speaker is accused of launching into a “tirade” in which he used racial slurs, uttered anti-foreign statements, and left fellow tenants of the building in which he lives fearing for their safety.

The FNM said: “The leader of the Free National Movement, in his observations on the incipient scandal, merely indicated his concern that in the absence of a full resolution of, and exoneration from, the allegations, there may be cause for the Deputy Speaker to resign.”

“The PLP, in typical fashion, has responded with untruthful and vicious personal attacks against party leader Minnis and other FNMs, most particularly former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

“It is untrue to suggest, however back-handedly, that Hubert Ingraham ever verbally abused the former Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions. The fact is that Mr Ingraham, in Parliament, was accused of victimisation by the PLP and, in defending himself from that serious allegation of targeted victimisation, merely stated that as Prime Minister, he had received information which caused him to change his previous support for her candidacy to be promoted to the substantive office of Director of Public Prosecutions.

“Mr Ingraham never said what information he received and never disparaged Mrs Bethell.

The FNM said the record shows that at every stage of his public life and political career, Mr Ingraham was a staunch promoter of the advancement of women and a defender of their rights.

The FNM added: “The other slurs in the PLP statement against other former FNM MPs are infantile, puerile and unworthy of any considered response.”