The head of one of the largest public sector trade unions yesterday called for the sacking of Kennedy Member of Parliament Kenyatta Gibson as Chairman of the Gaming Board on the heels of reports that the MP had been engaged in a bust up with his parliamentary colleague Mt. Moriah MP Keod Smith.
Yesterday, Mr. Gibson released a statement to the media declaring that he had not resigned from his chairmanship. The statement was contrary to a newspaper report that carried an unconfirmed report of the embattled MP tendering his resignation.
“He needs to be removed as chairman of the Gaming Board because he is abusing his power,” Bahamas Public Services Union President John Pinder claimed.
Mr. Pinder had criticized Mr. Gibson in the past in relation to the firing of a former inspector at the Gaming Board. In fact the BPSU had also staged a demonstration several months ago as it brought attention to the plight of Terran Fowler and took Mr. Gibson to task for the action that was taken against the BPSU member.
On Tuesday Mr. Pinder claimed that Mr. Gibson had authorized the hiring of individuals in senior positions over civil servants who had more experience and qualifications.
“Morale is very low at this time because these new [individuals] are coming in with senior positions as gaming inspectors over [people with more] experience,” he said.
“I am waiting to see what kind of decision that the prime minister will make. Without a doubt I am hoping that he is removed and if not we have to protest [about it.]
Mr. Pinder claimed not to have received any adverse reaction from civil servants at the Bahamas Environment Science and Technology [BEST] Commission where Keod Smith serves as chairman and Ambassador for the Environment.
“I havenﾒt gotten any negative feed back from the BEST Commission,” Mr. Pinder told the Bahama Journal. “They are satisfied that [Mr. Smith] acted in self defence more than anything else.”
Mr. Smith, while a guest on the Love 97 programme Jones and Company on Sunday claimed that he and Mr. Gibson had been involved in overheated discussions and he issued an apology to the persons who were inclined to defend his reputation in the aftermath.
But both Mr. Smith and Mr. Gibson, who was also a guest on the show, denied that there were fisticuffs.
In a written apology he released on Friday, Mr. Gibson said that human frailty led him to behaviour that he greatly regretted.
Mr. Pinder claimed that he had also been involved in an unfortunate incident with Mr. Gibson several weeks ago while the two were in a private meeting.
Meantime, the Free National Movement earlier in the week called the incident involving the two MPs a “disgraceful episode.” The statement from the opposition party said that people will forgive their favourite politician of a lot of things but the one thing they will not forgive is when they are taken for fools.
“And that is exactly what Mr. Christie did when he tried to cover up the incident,” it noted.
“In the process, Mr. Christie who has so prided himself on his integrity and honesty did grievous ﾖ if not fatal ﾖ injury to his credibility. Nobody believes he did not know [about the brawl]ﾅ”
The statement was referring to the interview that the Prime Minister gave to the Bahama Journal during which he said that he had heard about “disagreements” but there were no reports of fisticuffs between the two PLP MPs.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
