FNM leader Hubert Minnis and John Bostwick at a previous FNM event.
By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
FREE National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday said the party has not made a decision on whether John Bostwick will be asked to resign his post in the Senate because of the recent criminal charge brought against him.
His comments came after Bostwick was charged in Magistrates Court yesterday afternoon with possession of ammunition.
Speaking with The Tribune, Dr Minnis said the fate of Bostwick’s political career has not yet been decided as the party is giving the Senator and his family some time to “work through this stress”.
“We have not come up with anything yet, the matter just happened. He just got charged,” Dr Minnis said. “Out of respect for the family we are going to give him some time. We will give him and his family time, they are going through stress and we have to be humane about these things. But we will release a statement in due time.”
However a senior FNM official told The Tribune that it is “more than likely” that Bostwick will be asked to step down.
“Everyone is expecting him to resign, it would be the honourable thing to do,” said the FNM, who did not want to be named. “We do not want to have to ask him to do so, but if he doesn’t it is more than likely that he will be asked to step down.”
According to the Constitution, a person cannot serve in the Senate if they are serving a sentence of imprisonment exceeding 12 months or is under such a sentence of imprisonment, the execution of which has been suspended.
When asked to comment on whether Bostwick should be asked to resign, Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts said he “hopes the FNM does the right and honourable thing.”
He refused further comment.
When contacted on the matter yesterday, Minister of State for National Security Keith Bell said he has total confidence in Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade and the Royal Bahamas Police Force in conducting a thorough and impartial investigation.
“While no one is above the law, everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilt by a court of competent jurisdiction,” Mr Bell said.
Bostwick pleaded not guilty to the ammunition charges. He was granted $9,000 bail and is expected to return to court on May 22 for a fixture hearing.
Comments
Publius 10 years, 5 months ago
The FNM has become a monumental disgrace. This ought not even be up for discussion. If it were a PLP, they would have quickly called for his resignation because that is what is supposed to happen in instances like this.
sheeprunner12 10 years, 5 months ago
How many Bahamian politicians resign for alleged criminal conduct?????? A few may have been fired in the past ........ you can count them on one hand
Publius 10 years, 5 months ago
Matters not, the FNM claims to believe in honorable governance, do they not? So something like this ought not even be up for discussion by them. If a PLP Senator had been in this position, every FNM would be calling for him to resign immediately, as indeed he ought.
Cobalt 10 years, 5 months ago
Haaaah! Publius... what world are you living in? The PLP would have quickly called for his resignation??????? Don't make me laugh!! The PLP is the textbook definition of corruption and scandal!! Members of the PLP government have even been placed on the radar of the DEA!! If it's one thing the PLP is NOT known for... is doing the right thing.
Publius 10 years, 5 months ago
Clearly you either misread or did not read what I said. Read it again please. I said if a PLP Senator were charged before the courts, the FNM would have already called for his immediate resignation.
Cobalt 10 years, 5 months ago
You are right. Point taken.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
Totally agree, this will look really bad on their ability to be just and decisive leaders if he is asked to resign "later". I don't know him but they do. Likely someone in the hierarchy knows if he travels around with ammunition on a regular basis
sheeprunner12 10 years, 5 months ago
Hitting at the Bostwicks in the FNM is like hitting at the Pindlings, hannas or Maynards in the PLP........... one of the political "royal" families.......... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
proudloudandfnm 10 years, 5 months ago
If Bostwick resigns now he might as well admit his guilt and move on. It does appear very fishy. If he had bullets in his bag why were they not discovered in Nassau airport?
I would fight this and claim my innocence loudly. I most certainly would not quit...
I say it now, if he quits now then he'd be seen as guilty....
sheeprunner12 10 years, 5 months ago
Innocent until proven guilty............................ Article 20.2.a of the Bahamian Constitution ......................
Publius 10 years, 5 months ago
He has every right to fight having plead not guilty. He ought not hold public office while doing so. This is honorable governance 101.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
Agreed 100%
Cobalt 10 years, 5 months ago
The FNM has no choice in the matter. Bostwick has to go. Otherwise they lose what little credibility they have left. John Bostwick is an expendable idiot anyway. His character has always been a liability to the FNM.
sheeprunner12 10 years, 5 months ago
Does Doc Minnis have the balls for that????????????
Cobalt 10 years, 5 months ago
Well??? We shall see.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
Same thing I've heard, I don't know him so I can't say if it's true, but they know him. They need to get serious about the people they put forward as representatives. These same people could have their hands on the purse strings of some ministry affecting the livelihoods of thousands of Bahamians and the good name of the Bahamas. Think about that seriously Dr Minis, FNM, DNA. Give us GOOD AND RESPECTABLE candidates. The PEOPLE you select are your road to success. Look at this current crew lots of big names but no character.
Tarzan 10 years, 5 months ago
No wait. The A.G. might take a long trip, say overnight, out of the country and some other cabinet member, say Minister of Little or Nothing, could file a nolle prosequi on behalf of the government on the grounds of national security. Afterwards the government could repeatedly promise to disclose the facts supporting this circumvention of the criminal justice system, and then after a few weeks simply deny any such promise was ever made. Oh, wait a minute. The miscreant here is from the other political party. Excuse me. Nothing to see here. Move on.
sheeprunner12 10 years, 5 months ago
LOL............. good one!!!!! Politics make strange bed-fellows!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
Of course the reds will circle their wagons but far away from their Comrade John B. After all, them red shirts are well known for denying one their own, as long as the last name just happens to be a Bostwick.
ProfessorTinker 10 years, 5 months ago
There is no two ways about this mess. The only thing that makes any sense would be for the DisHonorable Member to leave for good. I can assure you if was not hi he would have be raising allot of hell. He is very calm which means it i hi and he is looking for an out. This is the nonsense that I continue to talk about, we must hold these people accountable. DPM said the other day, "pay them more so they don't steal" He is admitting that they do. What is wrong with the Bahamian People. We need the people of the 1960's and 70's.
Publius 10 years, 5 months ago
Few people with honor anymore
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
I don't like mandatory minimums, they tend to be highly skewed to punishing poor black men. Rich men and white men get off because they are either rich or white.
That said Bahamian men, STOP DOING DUMB THINGS. If you want a firearm for protection go through the proper procedure. There are now mandatory minimum (2yr?) sentences if you are found guilty of holding an unlicensed firearm. That means do not pass go. straight to jail. This is serious. If you "too bad" to comply, think about your wife, mother, father, sisters, brothers, children and friends who will all have to do your time with you.
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
Comrade John B best pack he things up in he senate locker cause the reds will drop a Bostwick like an hot iron, within the next 24 hours.
242orgetslu 10 years, 5 months ago
PLEASE READ AND PASS ON! This is the link where the full story is: http://si.com/vault/article/magazine/MA…
Across the inky-blue Gulf Stream from Florida, near the sheer edge of the Great Bahama Bank, a new island is emerging from the sea. Although it bears the appealing name Ocean Cay, this new island is not, and never will be, a palm-fringed paradise of the sort the Bahamian government promotes in travel ads. No brace of love doves would ever choose Ocean Cay for a honeymoon; no beauty in a brief bikini would waste her sweetness on such desert air. Of all the 3,000 islands and islets and cays in the Bahamas, Ocean Cay is the least lovely. It is a flat, roughly rectangular island which, when completed, will be 200 acres and will resemble a barren swatch of the Sahara. Ocean Cay does not need allure. It is being dredged up from the seabed by the Dillingham Corporation of Hawaii for an explicit purpose that will surely repel more tourists than it will attract. In simplest terms, Ocean Cay is a big sandpile on which the Dillingham Corporation will pile more sand that it will subsequently sell on the U.S. mainland. The sand that Dillingham is dredging is a specific form of calcium carbonate called aragonite, which is used primarily in the manufacture of cement and as a soil neutralizer. For the past 5,000 years or so, with the flood of the tide, waters from the deep have moved over the Bahamian shallows, usually warming them in the process so that some of the calcium carbonate in solution precipitated out. As a consequence, today along edges of the Great Bahama Bank there are broad drifts, long bars and curving barchans of pure aragonite. Limestone, the prime source of calcium carbonate, must be quarried, crushed and recrushed, and in some instances refined before it can be utilized. By contrast, the aragonite of the Bahamian shallows is loose and shifty stuff, easily sucked up by a hydraulic dredge from a depth of one or two fathoms. The largest granules in the Bahamian drifts are little more than a millimeter in diameter. Because of its fineness and purity, the Bahamian aragonite can be used, agriculturally or industrially, without much fuss and bother. It is a unique endowment. There are similar aragonite drifts scattered here and there in the warm shallows of the world, but nowhere as abundantly as in the Bahamas. In exchange for royalties, the Dillingham Corporation has exclusive rights in four Bahamian areas totaling 8,235 square miles. In these areas there are about four billion cubic yards—roughly 7.5 billion long tons—of aragonite. At rock-bottom price the whole deposit is worth more than $15 billion. An experienced dredging company like Dillingham should be able to suck up 10 million tons a year, which will net the Bahamian government an annual royalty of about $600,000.
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