This and several other questions surrounding the year-old incident remains a mystery as police officers continue to actively pursue the matter that culminated in almost a week’s stand-off between employees and management of The Bahamas Electricity Corporation, a government-owned entity.
The demonstrations followed closely on the heels of a letter of reprimand given at the time to Bahamas Electrical Workers Union President, Dennis Williams, after he released information to the press concerning the state of contractual negotiations. The letter of reprimand was later withdrawn. However, days later, the situation reached a new high when four “chainsaw-felled” power line poles led to an island-wide blackout on Tuesday, Feb. 10. The incident triggered a reaction and caused both power plants to go down. The poles, which carried high-tension lines, resulted in substantive repair costs for the government. The poles were located just east of South Ocean Road.
Mr Williams and his membership denied any involvement in the matter. To reinforce his point, he ordered all workers back to their posts, effectively putting an end to the demonstrations.
But in a televised news conference, Minister of Works and Utilities, Bradley Roberts, who has responsibility for the corporation, labeled the incident, an act of “sabotage.”
At the time, Minister Roberts said that, “The persons responsible for the damaged lines have no regard for the nation’s number one industry – tourism – on which the public treasury spends some $70 million each year to bring visitors to The Bahamas. This criminal conduct threatens the rules of law and the wider community. The life and health of the sick, senior citizens, babies or others in hospitals or at home were imperiled by this criminal act.”
BEC went so far as to offer a $25,000 reward to anyone who could provide information leading to the apprehension of the person(s) responsible for the incident. The corporation said that the reward was being offered because of the “serious nature” of the act. The reward was subsequently doubled but to no avail.
In a brief interview with The Nassau Guardian on Thursday, Asst. Commissioner of Crime, Reginald Ferguson, confirmed that the investigation was ongoing. He too deemed the act to be a very serious one. “We definitely are trying to lock up somebody for that because it is a serious matter. We have been working with that from then to now, employing all investigative tools that we have at our disposal but so far all of our angles of investigations have been exhausted and we have not been able to arrest anybody in the matter yet,” Mr Ferguson said.
He appealed to persons in the wider community who may have information with regard to the matter to pass it on to the police. “We would like to have the person(s) responsible locked up and put away but we have not been able to make any significant inroads into that investigation,” Mr Ferguson revealed.
The Guardian placed calls to the offices of BEC’s General Manager, Kevin Basden, and Minister Roberts for an update on the matter but the telephone calls were not returned up to press time. However, a BEC official who wished to remain anonymous said that the corporation still remains firm in their resolve to have the person(s) responsible for the incident prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
By: KEVA LIGHTBOURNE, The Nassau Guardian
