Bahamas Christian Council (BCC) Vice-President Bishop John Humes told The Guardian yesterday that he and Pastor Everette Brown of New Bethlehem Baptist Church had a meeting with the residents on Monday night, when it was agreed that a demonstration was not the right way to go.
“There will be no demonstration tomorrow (Wednesday),” said Bishop Humes. “We had a meeting with them and it was revealed that we don’t need to demonstrate.”
Last week, when the residents first announced their plan to demonstrate, their constituency representative, Leslie Miller, told them that such a move would not advance their cause. Feeling that their right to protest in a democratic country was being threatened by those remarks, the residents met with Bishop Humes who had appealed to all church leaders in the country, the previous week, to join Baptists in support of the residents.
“But the Christian Council doesn’t demonstrate,” explained Bishop Humes. “That’s not the route we normally take. We should negotiate with those in authority including the Prime Minister.”
He added: “There was some misinformation concerning the Christian Council joining the demonstrators. The Christian Council never called for a demonstration.”
BCC’s Lakeview Church of God on the top of the hill in Bozine Town and three other churches in the area are now considered to be on the property owned by Harrold Road Land Development Company (LANDCO).
On May 11, the Supreme Court awarded legal title of the 148-acre parcel of land between Bozine Town and Knowles Drive to LANDCO. The Court’s ruling came as a shock to the residents, some of whom had been living on, and cultivating the property for six decades.
Bishop Humes said he sympathised with the residents and the entire community where Lakeview Church of God had been an integral part since 1972.
“But don’t forget, this is a Supreme Court ruling,” he said. “You cannot just push that aside.”
Tyrone Brown, spokesperson for the Bozine Town Steering Committee told The Guardian that the residents held meetings with their attorney, Milton Evans, and agreed to appeal the Court’s decision before a June 23 deadline.
However, on May 19, Mr Miller intervened in the matter and told the residents not to fight the ruling, assuring them that no one in Bozine Town would be displaced.
Mr Brown said the residents were not convinced that they would be able to carry on with their lives “worry-free” since they have not received any thing in writing from the government guaranteeing they would not be served eviction notices after June 23.
“Since that promise (by Mr Miller), there hasn’t been much discussion on the matter by the government with LANDCO,” said Mr Brown. “We have less than two weeks left but we wanted to appeal last week.” The decision to appeal, he added, was unanimous.
By: MINDELL SMALL, The Nassau Guardian
