The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

AFTER a meeting between warring Valley Boys factions failed to resolve their dispute yesterday, the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture will consult “legal minds” to determine which faction will receive the seed money and the opportunity to rush on Bay Street as a category A-group, according to Minister Mario Bowleg.

Although Junkanoo Corporation of The Bahamas chairman Dion Miller had insisted that the faction led by Brian Adderley would get the funds because it registered for the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day parades first, a letter from the Office of the Registrar General advising that faction to drop the Valley Boys name from its title has complicated matters.

Eager to protect itself from legal problems, the ministry is concerned that Mr Adderley’s group could lose its licence, leaving Mr Davis’ faction as the only group licenced to carry the Valley Boys name on Bay Street. Mr Davis’ group is not currently registered to participate in the parades, according to Mr Miller. 

“At this point, this one seems to be a little deep and we are hoping that at some point they will be able to see eye to eye because they once stood side by side with each other as group members and as brother and sisters of Junkanoo and sometimes it takes a while for those wounds to be healed,” Mr Bowleg said yesterday after meeting with JCNP officials and representatives from the factions.

Mr Bowleg said another meeting with legal teams and the Attorney General’s Office is scheduled for next week, where a final decision regarding the seed funding will be made. 

Trevor Davis, leader of the breakaway faction, said seed funding was not discussed during yesterday’s meeting, which was designed to “facilitate a dialogue between both groups to work together as one”.

He said: “Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we reached an impasse.”

Former Prime Minister Perry Christie, a founding member of the Valley Boys, told The Tribune last week that he had proposed resolving the internal rift through an election, but his recommendations to the management committee, led by Mr Adderley, were ignored.