by Eulana Weekes
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Leader of the Nevis Reformation Party, Dr Janice Daniel Hodge has threatened to take legal action against Premier Brantley for allegedly claiming that the Nevis Reformation Party was the beneficiary of 4 to 6 million dollars from the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis to finance its preparation for the December 2022 Nevis Island Assembly elections.
During an official press statement to the public on Monday, October 02, 2023, Dr. Daniel-Hodge expressed her frustration on Brantley’s social media postings and clearly stated that neither the party or herself received funding from the Development Bank.
“On 13 September 2023, Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew referenced a report emanating from an investigation that was commissioned into the financial affairs of the Development Bank during the seven years governance of the Team Unity Government; a construct comprised in part of the Concerned Citizens Movement, the People’s Action Movement and the People’s Labour Party. Prime Minister Drew revealed that the findings of the report indicate that in excess of 20 million dollars has gone missing. These are indeed grim findings deserving serious attention.”
” In the wake of all this, the Premier of Nevis, Hon Mark Brantley, in a rather childish display of deception and dishonesty, took to social media on October 01 to lay false accusations against me and the party that I lead. On one occasion he stated and I quote, ” I am cooking saltfish and think that NRP collect 4 to 6 million dollars from Development Bank last election and still lose. I wonder who get the money? Rain a come for who got cocoa a sun.” He also wrote and I quote, ” Which political party collect all those millions from Development Bank?”
Daniel Hodge added, “Let me be as pellucid as possible, neither the Nevis Reformation Party nor its leadership received funding from the Development Bank to finance the last election.”
WINN FM contacted Premier Brantley for comment following the NRP leader’s statement. He called upon Daniel-Hodge to do the same and issue statements regarding other pertinent matters.
“I am as Premier of Nevis and the leader of the Concerned Citizens Movement, quite happy to see that the leader of the NRP has broken her silence and has come forward to make such a detailed statement. We have been asking for the past few years, since she emerged on the political scene, to get from her a statement as to what happened during her tenure at the Coastal Zone Management Unit in the United States Virgin Islands where according to her own admission, several persons went to prison. To date, she has been unwilling to say anything to the Nevisian public about this matter and the Coastal Zone Management Unit that she managed. I am delighted that now she has found her voice we will finally get something said to the public to clarify that matter as to what really happened there.
I also say that her party through its spokespersons have been taking to the airwaves to seek to engender an environment of violence and introduce violent rhetoric into our politics. I have dealt with that publicly, I have asked for her view and apology and for her to disassociate herself from the party activists, she has thus far not done that. So now that she’s speaking, I look forward very much to her addressing her party’s violent rhetoric and for her to finally tell the people Nevis what happened when she managed the Coastal Zone Management Unit in the US Virgin Islands,” Brantley said.
