MINNIS: THE GORILLA IN THE MIST
The House of Assembly met on Wednesday 12 April 2023 and this was a day of holding hands and kumbaya. It had to be one person to spoil the mood of unanimity, about declaring sailing the official sport of The Bahamas. It turned out that the person was a gorilla or so he described himself. That man was Dr. Hubert Minnis, our former king, who was asked by Theo Sealy of Eyewitness News whether his hands were clean in the face of allegations of misappropriation of funds from the food programme of the pandemic, under his watch.
Dr. Minnis decided to go ghetto on the reports and told him that the present Prime Minister Philip Davis was barking up the wrong tree when he started fooling with him. He said his hands were absolutely clean. Dr. Minnis said that Mr. Davis did not want the gorilla in him to come out. Well, he was getting hard and the PLP and Mr. Davis were shaking in our boots.
The lawyers have something in evidential law which they call similar fact evidence. It goes like this. The normal rule is that previous consistent behaviour is not a predictor of the truth of a present act. However, if there is a pattern of behaviour this might be an exception to the evidential rule which then allows the jury to consider the similar facts as a predictor of the truth of the instant event.
Well during the past year and a half, two of his parliamentarians were charged in the courts with bribery. One is Adrian Gibson MP for Long Island, the other is Lanisha Rolle, the former Minister of Sports. In both cases while presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, a witness in each case turned state’s evidence and will testify against them. The fingers point in certain direction. Just saying.
So, all the high and mighty talk about the gorilla coming out in him is just bluff and bluster. He must be worried that the next time, they will come looking for him. He himself told the country that the police came to question him on the matter of the missing food funds.
We shall see what happens if the gorilla emerges from the mist of lies and untruths of the FNM administration.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday, 15th April , 2023 up to midnight: 693,545;
Number of hits for the month of April up to Saturday, 15th April, 2023 up to midnight; 1,163,386;
Number of hits for the year 2023 up to Saturday, 15th April, 2023 up to midnight: 6,109,572.