The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said his “mouth is on lockdown” as he sought to contextualise his use of the medical term “NPO” on Tuesday in response to questions over whether he would meet with Progressive Liberal Party Leader Philip “Brave” Davis following the latter’s strongly worded letter to him regarding PLP arrests.

“NPO is medical terminology meaning nothing by mouth, nothing orally,” the prime minister explained to The Tribune yesterday.

Dr Minnis’ use of the term on Tuesday sparked wide discussion on social media site Facebook yesterday with many seeking to understand how the term fits as an appropriate response to the PLP leader’s request for a meeting over the arrests. He was questioned about it by the press on Tuesday following a tour of Atlantis.

He continued: “In other words, ‘Brave’ Davis has already disseminated the information - the letter - to the media, to social media and throughout The Bahamas. So he wants them to respond, not me.

“So nothing will come out of my month. I am finished with that. All it means that since he did it I am under NPO. Nothing by mouth. (He should) allow those who he sent it to, to respond. That’s who he wrote the letter to, not me because he could have picked up the phone and called me. If you send me a letter, you don’t send it to the media and everyone else, so my mouth is on lock down. NPO,” Dr Minnis told The Tribune.

Last week, Mr Davis wrote a harsh letter to Dr Minnis regarding criminal probes of PLPs. He warned: “When you set out to dig a grave for your enemy, dig two.”

The letter was leaked to The Tribune and other media and also circulated on Facebook and messaging platform WhatsApp.

Dr Minnis suggested he rejected the letter because it was made public. He said Mr Davis could have called him, but as it stands, the Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP has not done so. He also said he would not meet with Mr Davis on the matter.

“The leader of the opposition, if he wanted to speak to me, he knows what to do if he sent a letter to me. He subsequently gave the letter to the press and social media. He is not talking to me. He knows protocol,” Dr Minnis said Tuesday.

When asked Tuesday if he would meet with Davis about his concerns, Dr Minnis said: “The answer is N-P-O. No.”

The Tribune did not receive the letter in question from Mr Davis.

Mr Davis’ letter, which was written on July 18, highlights his frustrations with the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s (RBPF) anti-corruption investigations.

Calling investigations like the one into former Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly Dion Smith an “abuse of power,” Mr Davis warned: “When such abuses of power occur, the offending parties, be they police officers or politicians, need to understand that there will come a day of reckoning for them as well.

“What goes around, comes around. And let me hasten to add that that is not a threat. It is an immutable law of the moral universe, one that is sometimes expressed in these words: when you set out to dig a grave for your enemy, dig two.”

Mr Davis added: “Those who are committing these abuses should therefore understand they cannot do so with impunity. To use your own words: where you do wrong and abuse your position, there are consequences.”