“Former BAIC employees sue government” The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Attorney Wayne Munroe has taken legal action against Attorney General Carl Bethel on behalf of four employees of the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) over their alleged ‘unlawful’ arrest and false imprisonment’, last May.

The plaintiffs in the matter, Ricardo Smith, Latorna McPhee, Branado Smith and Andrea Moss are seeking ‘costs and such other relief as the court deems just and fit.’

‘The plaintiff’s claim is for the unlawful arrest and false imprisonment on the part of the defendant, its servants and or agents in consequence whereof the plaintiff suffered loss and damages from the 16^th day of May, 2017 to the 17^th day if May 2017’, the writ of summons said.

‘The plaintiff were unlawfully arrested at their place of employment, namely the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation and subsequently unlawfully detained without reasonable cause at the South Beach Police Station and the Cable Beach Police Station.”

Don’t you just hate it when they be moving from station to station like that?

Seriously; where is the merit in this law suit?

First let us begin with the fact that attorney Wayne Munroe QC has taken legal action against the government on this matter; was there even a government in place when these arrests were made?  I take it to believe that the Queen’s Council in attempting to force the hand of the attorney general to get this case moving or resolved or maybe to just get his name in the papers and remain relevant until the next general election; I really do not know what his motives are don’t care but I do care about facts.

These are facts; former BIAC Chairman and former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Member of Parliament for Nassau Village was arrested the night of the election when they were observed moving certain equipment from the government-owned Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation buildings.

It is my understanding that government buildings are normally under surveillance on the night of elections to avoid thief and or/vandalism; so the police believing that they were observing suspicious behavior, intervened and took into custody all that were present, which is normal procedure.  It would seem that by the mere virtue of who he was at the time, still being the Executive Chairman of the corporation in question, that he [Dion Smith] and others were supposed to have been given a ‘free pass’ to do as they please without the police conducting a proper investigation, as their lawyer goes on to claim “….that their arrest and detention overnight was directly linked to their perceived political affiliation.”

 So today we have what is nothing more than a frivolous lawsuit filed against the government who was not in power at the time and not the Royal Bahamas Police Force who would be responsible for what is being called an “unlawful detention during [the] police investigations into complaints of thief by reason of employment”, which would have never occurred if the Mr. Smith had done what normal politicians did and watched the election returns at his campaign headquarters with his poll workers and campaign workers, but instead he choose to take a select few into this office at the time and create a “Super Bowl” party type atmosphere for what he and others in the Progressives Liberal Party (PLP) saw as an election that they could not loose.

It is time that the Wayne Munroe and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) just let this whole thing go and just be satisfied to prove that the electronic equipment being removed was indeed the property of the defendants and not the property of the government, so that the charges can be dropped.  I would also encourage the Attorney General, whose hand they wish to force, to release his findings in this case and either drop the charges or press on so that Mr. Munroe can find another opportunist hole to climb into, as far too much time and resources are being wasted on this case.

END