According to a copy of a writ dated March 16, 2005, Mr. Bodie is seeking general and special damages for “libelous and slanderous statements made by the Minister.
Mr. Bodie’s legal suit refers to recent comments Minister Roberts made in response to a Bahama Journal article earlier this week that indicated that displaced Royal Oasis workers may have to wait a while longer before the government delivers on its promise to make the millions of dollars in severance payments, as Mr. Bodie had filed a writ challenging the government’s plan.
Minister Roberts, the government’s spokesman on the Royal Oasis dispute, brushed off the challenge as “absolutely frivolous, adding that all the writs Mr. Bodie has ever filed over the years have not gone beyond the initial stage from the date it was filed.
At the time, he further indicated that Labour Minister Vincent Peet is overseeing the payout.
The government has promised to pay 25 percent of the redundancy payments immediately, the other 25 percent in 90 days and the balance within 120 days.
Approximately $8 million in severance is owed to the hundreds of workers and government officials say they plan to go after the resort’s owners for the money.
Mr. Bodie objected to Minister Roberts’ remarks regarding his lawsuits.
In a recent release, he said he is “sick and disgusted by the naked and deliberate, apparently non observance of the Constitution and laws of The Bahamas by the ‘new’ PLP and its leader.
He claimed Minister Roberts is a case in point.
“Roberts, ‘God bless his soul’, has managed to put some serious allegations behind him, Mr. Bodie said. “He is the last man in this nation, who should be talking about frivolous law suits and the abuse of the judicial system.
He was referring to the Minister’s recent troubles when a woman he knew claimed he raped her, but later dropped the charge.
Mr. Bodie said if a bye-election is called in Holy Cross, he will throw his name in the hat as a contender. Many people are watching developments as it relates to present MP Sidney Stubbs, who is still fighting to get a bankruptcy order against him annulled.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
