Opposition Party Calls For Gibson To Resign:

By Bianca Symonette -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Members of the Workers Party called for the resignation of Minister of Labour and Immigration Shane Gibson during a small and peaceful demonstration in front of the main Post Office building in Nassau on Tuesday.

According to party leader, Rodney Moncur, Minister Gibson should resign due to the controversy surrounding the permanent residency of former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith.

Ms. Smith has been at the centre of controversy for several months now.

Her former lover Ben Thompson has claimed that he owns the Eastern Road home where she lives and has demanded that she leave.

Mr. Gibson has said that Ms. Smith was granted permanent residency because she was considered an "economic applicant", and had purchased a million-dollar home in the country.

Mr. Moncur insisted during his protest that due diligence was not done before Ms. Smith’s application was approved.



"We must examine what is the purpose behind an economic permanent resident and the policy behind that is that a foreigner is required to invest a minimum of $500,000 and all taxes and benefits arrived from that are to be put in the public treasury. So to date the minister has failed to collect $90,000 now owing to the public treasury and for that we are now demanding his resignation," Mr. Moncur said.

He and his group reportedly dropped off a petition at Government House requesting an investigation to be launched into the whole affair.

"We are complaining over the fact that Minister Shane Gibson did not do due diligence in the processing of the application of Anna Nicole Smith. Had he done due diligence he would have discovered that there was a hidden controversy of her purported purchase of the Eastern Road home," Mr. Moncur said.

He said the government should have done the honorable thing and admit that it acted out of turn and without merit and immediately rescind the granting of Ms. Smith’s permanent residency.

"The government in its suspicious haste to grant this permanent residency was so deficient that they did not collect the stamp taxes on the conveyance as are required by law before they could even judiciously take note of the documents upon which they acted to so make this grant," Mr. Moncur claimed.

In addition to launching an investigation into the matter, the Workers Party has also asked the governor general to demand an apology from the prime minister over the whole matter.

"Now therefore the Workers Party beseeches His Excellency to demand from the prime minister a sincere and humble apology to The Bahamian people… and that the prime minister do advise the immigration board that the permanent residency as issued to Ms. Smith do now stand revoked until full and complete resolution of the substantive ownership issues before the Supreme Court," Mr. Moncur said.

He added that if these requests are not followed the country would be further decayed and the destruction of public affairs would continue.

Minister Gibson has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the matter, and Prime Minister Perry Christie has defended him on the issue.

bahamian politics