The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE leader of a newly formed Junkanoo group is insisting that his group will not be stopped from participating in the upcoming Junkanoo parade, despite its membership application being rejected by officials for late submission.

"We don't care who say what. The Immortals is a community group and we're coming to Bay Street. We gone put our foot at that exhibiting line and it gone be on them. We're not worrying about them and they're not stopping our work," said Jermaine Williams, leader of The Immortals.

His comments came weeks after the Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence announced that The Immortals was refused membership due to submitting its application past the deadline.

JCNP was responding to Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Lanisha Rolle's announcement of the new group to Category B at a seed funding presentation.

However Mr Williams denied JCNP's claims yesterday, saying the group had submitted their application some three weeks before the actual deadline.

"They denied our application as soon as they saw The Immortal group was forming. When we presented our applications, it was two applications on the JCNP website. The deadline was June 1," he said.

"We followed all the protocols and we followed all the rules of JCNP and we was discriminated against because of circumstances with the JCNP executive members," he said.

Mr Williams said he felt that the group's application was denied because some JCNP members have a personal vendetta against them.

However, when contacted for comment in response to the allegations, JCNP chairman Dion Miller refuted the claims, explaining that there were two deadlines for the parade.

The first application deadline, he said, was for new groups wanting to participate in the parade.

"The deadline for June 1 was in regards to member dues for current members. So, if you're already a member of JCNP, you have until June 1 to pay a fee. But, what they're not accepting is that they're not a current member," he said.

"They are a new group. Registration date for new groups was April 1 … but they missed the (first) deadline…we cannot stop any particular group from competing so they will be welcomed to come on Bay Street, but they won't be competing for a prize."

Despite JCNP's rejection of the group's application, Mr Williams said the group will still perform on Bay Street.

"They want to say that (we) are not rushing for no prize because they want people to leave the group and they don't want this community to succeed, but it's their problem and not our problem… we're not settling for that," he said.

". . .We're not going to let the JCNP decide our rights as Bahamians to express ourselves on Bay Street. Everyday, we're working and if the government wants to come here and see what we're doing, they can come," he continued.

Speaking in House of Assembly earlier this month, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said nothing will change with the format of the parade, which is just about seven weeks away.

However, he said, the minister of culture, the JCNP and all relevant agencies will have a discussion in February as to the way forward so that by the end of March issues would be resolved.