{"id":10909,"date":"2018-01-02T14:22:30","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T18:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=10909"},"modified":"2018-01-02T16:34:09","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T20:34:09","slug":"lester-bird-defends-involvement-in-sand-mining-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/lester-bird-defends-involvement-in-sand-mining-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Lester Bird defends involvement in sand mining controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Prime Minister Sir Lester Bird is threatening to sue those accusing him of having an unlawful stake in the mining of sand on Barbuda.<\/p>

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The ailing former prime minister mounted a firm defense of his involvement and that of two other colleagues when he spoke on the Barbuda Land Act in parliament this morning.<\/p>\n

Sir Lester sought to clarify that “we did not start the mining of land.”<\/p>

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He explained that the venture to export Barbuda sand was started by Louisiana\u00a0Red Jacket Mines and that himself and fellow shareholders Robin Yearwood and\u00a0 Hugh Marshall Sr only got involved when the company was closing down.<\/p>

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“We decided that we could not allow the company to collapse and so we bought the shares,” the outgoing politician told the Lower House.<\/p>\n

He denied being involved in the company “to have a conflict or rip off the Barbuda people.”<\/p>

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Residents allege that the three men have made millions of dollars exporting Barbuda sand over a period of several decades.<\/p>\n

Bird admitted that although they were ministers of government at the time, the purcahse was in the best interest of the sister-isle.<\/p>

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“I cannot see a single reason why, if this company was collapsing and the people would be out of work, why me as a Barbudan couldn’t\u00a0buy the\u00a0(company.”<\/p>

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“I have as much right as any Barbudan to buy shares in Barbuda,” the national hero insists.<\/p>\n

And Sir Lester says he never “actively” involved himself in the company, nor was he ever a director.<\/p>\n

To protect the facts as he sees them, Sir Lester is threatening to go to court to sue those who argue that his involvement in the company was illegitimate.<\/p>\n

“And I am looking to a point that if they keep saying it, I am going to bring a case against the newspaper and those who say so.”<\/p>\n

“And I don’t\u00a0lose cases” Bird warned pointing to cases against the BBC and the leader of the opposition.<\/p>\n

He has also threatened to sue over the so-called IHI bribery scandal saying, “I had absolutely nothing to do any IHI Mr. Prime Minister. I wouldn’t\u00a0sit in your government if that were the case.”<\/p>\n

Sand mining has been blamed for environmental degradation on Barbuda. It’s also been argued that the venture has contributed very little economically to the island and its people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Prime Minister Sir Lester Bird is threatening to sue those accusing him of having an unlawful stake in the mining of sand on Barbuda. The ailing former prime minister mounted a firm defense of his involvement and that of two other colleagues when he spoke on the Barbuda Land Act in parliament this morning. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-2","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSir Lester Bird defends involvement in sand mining controversy - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/lester-bird-defends-involvement-in-sand-mining-controversy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sir Lester Bird defends involvement in sand mining controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Prime Minister Sir Lester Bird is threatening to sue those accusing him of having an unlawful stake in the mining of sand on Barbuda. The ailing former prime minister mounted a firm defense of his involvement and that of two other colleagues when he spoke on the Barbuda Land Act in parliament this morning. 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