COLA Steps Up in B.T.L. Arbitration Award

Geovanni Brackett

Ahead of the prime minister’s press conference this afternoon, Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action, COLA, held its own media brief to discuss the impact of the B.T.L. arbitration award.  The question and answer session came on the heels of a release issued by the grassroots organization on Tuesday, in which COLA castigated government for seeking to sell the Social Security Board fifty-five million dollars in B.T.L. shares.  This morning, flanked by executive members and attorney Kareem Musa, President Geovanni Brackett asked a question that has been put to the Barrow administration.

Geovanni Brackett, President, COLA

“Today, what we did was to meet with our attorney considering the fact that the legal judgment has been dropped down on us; the heavy judgment for the arbitration as it deals with the B.T.L. matter. We had the document leaked to us last night. We forwarded that document to our attorney to give a quick opinion to the media before the Prime Minister hosts his press conference this afternoon so that we can bring some clarity and questions that could be asked at the conference that we deem to be relevant. So, on the first matter, as we look at that judgment….what that judgment is saying, I don’t know the exact figure, but I know it to be three hundred and fifty or over three hundred and fifty million…if that figure is correct, it could be well over four hundred million by the time we’re finished paying. To me that judgment clearly annihilate any idea of any profitability of buying shares into B.T.L.  I think that from the minute that the government had taken it over, we’ve seen a decrease in terms of profits when it was under the Ashcroft Alliance. What we’ve been saying is that we felt from the very get go, if the government had been more strategic in taking over B.T.L. and if they had just settled from the time that they had the time to settle—as you will hear our attorney will explain, the government could have settled this matter a long time ago rather than dragging this through the mud and dropping it at the mercy of the tribunal.”