The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement political hopeful Lincoln Bain yesterday said he believes former Senator Lanisha Rolle can still have a bright future in politics, while insisting that he is “saddened” and “sorely disappointed” by her resignation from the upper chamber.

Mr Bain rejected claims that he orchestrated the controversy stemming from secret recordings he made of Mrs Rolle during a private meeting, and pledged his support for the former Senator despite this ongoing situation.

Asked if he viewed recording Mrs Rolle without her knowledge as unethical or deceitful in any way, Mr Bain responded: “No”.

He was adamant that he did not leak the audio to “set up” Mrs Rolle with a view to ensuring that she would not be considered by the party for the Pinewood Gardens candidacy. He made the comments as a guest on Guardian Radio talk show The Revolution. 

Mrs Rolle resigned on Friday after The Tribune exclusively published a series of stories highlighting three audio recordings in which both Mrs Rolle and Mr Bain discuss their political futures at length.

The audio revealed disparaging comments made by Mrs Rolle about several FNM members of Parliament. During the meeting, Mrs Rolle informed Mr Bain that the party would not offer him the nomination for the Pinewood Gardens constituency, and further claimed that the ratification of incumbent FNM MPs had been purposefully delayed.

“If I released something the whole Bahamas gonna know that I released it,” Mr Bain said. “I don’t hide behind nothing. If I released some tapes I am going to say look here this Lanisha, this the tapes (and) that’s me. Anyone who knows me knows that if I tell you that I did not release the tapes to the media, I did not.”

“I want to start by saying I am disappointed at what ended up happening to Lanisha.  I am a supporter of all of the young bright minds of the future.

“I am sorely disappointed and I still think that Mrs Rolle can recover from this and have a great political future.  I hope she does and if she does I will be one of those persons supporting her despite whatever may have happened and what people may think.”

Regarding the content of his meeting with Mrs Rolle, Mr Bain said his constituency executives were angered by her assertion that he would not get the nomination and these views were expressed to FNM executives. 

“There was this thing that people were pushing that was a total blatant lie that I didn’t receive the nomination and that I recorded this to set up Lanisha Rolle and took it to persons so that I could get the nomination.  That is a lie from the pits of hell.

“At the meeting certain things were said.  Basically she was saying that she was getting the nomination and not me and that I must support her and back her and manage it and that I must get the association on her side and basically if I didn’t then…

“So I spoke to my Pinewood executives and only them. I didn’t speak to party leadership. I spoke to Pinewood executives and let them know well I have been told by Lanisha that she is going to get the nomination. They were up in arms.  They were distraught (and) they were extremely upset that it came from her and that it came at all because they are behind me 100 per cent.”

He continued: “They had a meeting with the party leadership where they expressed their views. I don’t want to share the details of the meeting, but they said who they support and that’s it.

“The party leadership spoke to the good lady about it and she denied everything. She denied the content of it.  She denied we spoke about Pinewood.”

On Monday, Mr Bain was adamant that he did nothing wrong as he admitted to secretly recording former Senator Lanisha Rolle during a private meeting, saying his actions were a bid to “protect myself” from possible “sabotage.”

Mr Bain claimed the audio recording only “came into play” to prove to party executives that the private meeting had taken place.

Insisting that he does not go around recording people, he maintained that it will soon be abundantly clear that he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Asked to explain this alleged “sabotage”, Mr Bain responded that someone called to put him on alert about an upcoming meeting with Mrs Rolle and warned him to “be careful”.

Several attempts were made to contact Mrs Rolle, however they were unsuccessful.