06202016 edition

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Volume: 112 No.133

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Butler-Turner to challenge Minnis MP teams up with Duane Sands for FNM leadership bid By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net LONG Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner and Senator Dr Duane Sands will run as a team in a leadership race against Killarney MP Dr Hubert Minnis and East Grand Bahama MP Peter Turnquest at the Free National Movement’s convention at the end of next month, they confirmed to The Tribune yesterday. The pair finalised the decision on Saturday and informed Dr Minnis and Mr Turnquest of their intentions yesterday. The decision of Mrs Butler-Turner, who will run for leader, and Dr Sands, who will run for deputy leader,

has set the stage for one of the most anticipated political events of the year, to be held from July 27-29. The pair ran for the same positions in 2014 and lost to the current leadership duo, though they did not run as a team on that occasion. “It is not lost on either of us that we would’ve attempted (to win posts) at the November 2014 convention but all I can say is that in life, defeat is only final if you don’t get up and try again,” Dr Sands said when contacted by The Tribune yesterday. For her part, Mrs ButlerTurner said she endorsed all Dr Sands had to say about the matter. She declined further comment. SEE PAGE SIX

PILOT AND MECHANIC KILLED AS PLANE EXPLODES AFTER TAKE-OFF

GOMEZ: MYSTERY OVER ROBERT SMITH COMPLEX IS A COMPLETE DISGRACE

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunmedia.net

THE ten years it took for the Child & Adolescent and Robert Smith complex in Fox Hill to open and the lack of clarity surrounding the delay is a “complete disgrace”, Central Eleuthera MP Damian Gomez said yesterday. The former Cabinet minister’s comment came as he spoke to The Tribune about the lack of progress the government has made on issues relating to transparency and accountability, such as campaign finance laws and

a more open contract procurement system. Prime Minister Perry Christie commissioned the Robert Smith complex – which opens to patients today – last week, ten years after construction on the facility began. Minister of Labour and National Insurance Shane Gibson told The Tribune yesterday that part of the reason for the delay is that the first two contractors of the facility were terminated, prompting sub-contractors to complete the project. SEE PAGE THREE

THE SCENE at South Bimini airport yesterday after a small plane crashed, leaving two occupants dead. By RASHAD ROLLE The Tribune understands Police are also investigating Tribune Staff Reporter that the men who died in- the crash. rrolle@tribunmedia.net “At 4.15pm (on) June 19, cluded the pilot, Terrance “Tango” Gibson, and an aviation officials at South BiTWO men are dead after airplane mechanic, An- mini Airport received a rea private plane exploded thony Smith, nicknamed port of smoke in bushes near shortly after take off at the “Scrubby”. the airport. Investigations South Bimini Airport yesA statement released by revealed that an aircraft had terday. the Department of Civil crashed in the bushes adjaThe Piper Aztec plane Aviation said officials will cent to the runway.” crashed in bushes just off travel to Bimini this mornSEE PAGES TWO & THREE the runway at 4.15pm. ing to begin investigations.

PILOT Terrance Gibson.

KILLER JAILED FOR 55 YEARS FOR REFERENDUM TURNOUT UNDER 50% RASHAD ROLLE ed in the June 7 constitutionMURDER OF 15-YEAR-OLD GIRLFRIEND By Tribune Staff Reporter al referendum, according CONVICTED murderer Basil Black was sentenced to 55 years in prison for the murder of 15-year-old Alexis Smith. Black, 35, of Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama, was found guilty on March 8 of the shooting death of Smith, his girlfriend. Smith was at the Platinum Sports Bar in Eight Mile Rock with Black and some friends during the early morning of March 30, 2014, when she was shot

to death outside the nightclub. During trial, Black told the Supreme Court that he was a “cocaine” pusher but not a killer and denied shooting Smith. While giving testimony under oath in March, Black said that he and Alexis had lived together and were involved in an intimate relationship. He claimed that he never knew her age.

SEE PAGE EIGHT

rrolle@tribunmedia.net

A LITTLE fewer than half of eligible voters, 46.66 per cent of them, participat-

to official statistics released yesterday by Parliamentary Commissioner Sherlyn Hall. SEE PAGE SIX

QC: DAME ANITA RIGHT TO EXPRESS VIEWS By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

NOTED attorney Fred Smith, QC, yesterday said the expressed position of Court of Appeal President Dame Anita Allen on the

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

possible legality of same-sex marriages in The Bahamas is more than appropriate and chastised detractors who argued that she is unable to sit objectively on such cases that may arise in the future. SEE PAGE SIX


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