The Tribune

BRADLEY Roberts has again hit out at Michael Pintard, the Free National Movement’s candidate for Marco City, calling the former senator “compromised”.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Progressive Liberal Party chairman also criticised FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis for his “silence” on the controversy surrounding Mr Pintard.

Mr Pintard resigned as FNM senator and chairman in 2016, after it emerged that he was involved in an investigation into an alleged murder plot connected to Lyford Cay resident Peter Nygard.

This week, he told The Nassau Guardian that this would not have a significant impact on his election bid.

“However I beg to differ,” Mr Roberts said. “This amounts to conveniently sweeping this scandal under the proverbial carpet.

“The reasons behind Pintard’s resignation still exist today as it did back then and no amount of fluff or deflection from FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis or Michael Pintard himself can change that; both men bury their heads in the proverbial sand to their own peril and that of the FNM. Minnis remains suspiciously silent on the resignation and ratification of this embattled individual. Without explanation to his party or the public at large Dr Minnis has brought trouble into his camps once again and now seeks to have the good people of Marco City caught up in the fiasco.

“For a man who proposes anti-corruption legislation if he becomes prime minister, Dr Minnis is a joke, is duplicitous and cannot be trusted.

“There must be more involved to warrant such a move by the FNM leader. At whose directive is Dr Hubert Minnis making such reckless decisions?”

Mr Roberts also branded Dr Minnis a “puppet with no moral compass” that does not have control of his party.

“The Bahamian people cannot take the risk of having a person of this ilk, judgment and temperament in control of their government and country,” Mr Roberts said.

Mr Pintard has maintained that his decision last March was not an admission of guilt and that he would not allow the PLP to make him a scapegoat in the scandal involving Mr Nygard and his billionaire neighbour Louis Bacon.

He has also dismissed recent concerns over the controversy.

“I think it is important that it is litigated so that all of the facts in the matter would come out,” Mr Pintard told The Nassau Guardian this week.

“I have absolutely no concern on a civil level, on a criminal level, as I am not at the centre of any particular issue related to that.

“While political figures may attempt to put me at the centre, I am not.

“So I have absolutely no concern, and I don’t think it would have any major, any significant, impact on my [election] bid, and so, no, I am not concerned in that regard.”