Barrow to Smith: Sue me if I?m lying
“Sue me”. Tonight that’s the open challenge from the Opposition United Democratic Party on the heels of the Prime Minister’s comments on the registry scandal. According to U.D.P. Leader Dean Barrow, his party’s call for Godfrey Smith’s head on a platter stands, as they are more convinced than ever of the minister’s involvement as a silent partner in BELIPO, the group contracted to manage the Companies Registry. Barrow told News Five this morning that the Prime Minister has no choice but to oust the corrupt minister from his Cabinet.
Dean Barrow, Leader of Opposition
?The Prime Minister?s dodge in trying to avoid the responsibility that he as Prime Minister needs to take for dealing with Smith, his dodge was weak and dishonest. The point is that I have said that Smith was a partner. I have said I know this because my brother, who was Smith?s partner, has told me. The Prime Minister refuses to say that I am lying when I say this, but he also refuses to accept that what I say is true. He knows that it is true because had it not been true, Smith clearly would have been obliged to sue me. I am saying, I have said, and I am repeating that Smith was a partner in this business. Having engineered the business as Attorney General so that he could benefit is an act of corruption. If I accuse Smith of corruption in as naked and straightforward a fashion as that and what I am saying is not true, why on earth would Smith not sue me? He can?t sue me because what I say is true and the Prime Minister knows that that is why Smith can?t sue me, because what I am saying is true. What has to follow from that is that Smith needs to be fired.?
?This is the most concrete of all the situations to which we in the U.D.P. have referred. With Mr. Fonseca, there were implications from all the deals that went so horribly wrong, there were inferences to be drawn. With respect to Smith we can say, we can state as a bald fact that he was benefiting from the registry, that he in fact engineered the registry deal in a way so as to allow him to benefit. You can?t get it stated more plainly than that, so the case for Smith?s dismissal is the strongest of all the cases that we have made.?
Janelle Chanona
?Mr. Barrow are there operatives somewhere looking for paperwork to link Mr. Smith in black and white to this deal to support or bolster your allegations??
Dean Barrow
?It clearly is not going to be easy to find anything in black and white. I don?t know that there is anything in black and white. I don?t know how his silent partnership was arranged in terms of the details, but I know he that was a partner and I have explained that I know this because his partner told this to me. And so while we might not be able to get the actual proof in terms of documents that we can take to court, I think that the public will need and will require no proof other than that I am saying to him, my brother has told me that you were a partner and if that is not true, I am lying, or if my brother is lying, then you dare to sue me.?
Although Barrow has publicly indicted Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism Godfrey Smith as a silent partner in BELIPO, the Musa administration has denied his involvement, citing only Barrow’s brother, Denys and Belmopan businessman David Jenkins as owners of the privatised registry.
