By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party Chairman Bradley Roberts yesterday told Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins to “put up or shut up” over his threats to disclose damning information concerning the controversy over Renward Wells’ signing of a $650m letter of intent with a waste-to-energy company.

Mr Roberts’ comments, which included a call for the “egomaniacal” Dr Rollins to “shut the hell up,” is the most forceful denunciation of the MP by a member of his party since he began lashing out at the Christie administration several weeks ago.

However, Dr Rollins quickly shot back at the chairman while calling on the prime minister to put the Letter of Intent (LOI) controversy to bed.

“As quickly as the chairman has seen fit to respond to (my comments),” Dr Rollins said, “he should also be similarly convinced that no member of the organisation he chairs deserves to have the perception of impropriety hanging over their head due to the refusal of the prime minister to address this controversial matter, by explaining to the public the circumstances surrounding the same, some two months after it first made national headlines.

“Addressing this matter would be consistent with a government committed to the practice of good governance. The chairman’s statement would seem to suggest that a response from the prime minister is forthcoming. The country would be well served by a response from its leader.”

Yesterday Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis brushed off Dr Rollins’ disclosure threat and told The Tribune the government had more pressing matters to worry about.

“We will see hell freeze over and the second coming before Andre Rollins blackmails a PLP government or organisation because his egomaniacal and selfish genotype prevents him from reasonable and balanced behavior and being a team player,” Mr Roberts said yesterday. “If he is so dissatisfied in the leadership of the PLP, he can freely leave just as he freely joined the organisation.

“Further, Rollins must put up or shut up over these idle threats and claims of disrespect by the prime minister and acts of malfeasance by ‘others.’ If Rollins has information and proof of anything, lay the same on the table or shut the hell up and go sit down.

“He was sent to Parliament to do the people’s business, but instead he strokes his over-sized ego by repeatedly ‘hustling’ the media for headlines. These salacious outbursts and self-serving antics do not serve the public’s interest, but denigrate the nobility of public service and the Parliamentary process to spectacles for entertainment,” Mr Roberts added.

Mr Roberts said Dr Rollins “existed on the political fringes” until the PLP “brought him in from the cold.”

Dr Rollins recently told NB12 that if Mr Wells, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Works, is fired over the LOI he will reveal who else “should be fired.”

“ . . .Because there is more than meets the eye when it comes to this whole, as you call it, ‘LOI affair’,” he said. “If Renward Wells needs to be fired, he is not the only one and I have a problem with you trying to scapegoat my friend.”

Mr Wells signed a letter-of-intent with Stellar Energy on July 4 without Cabinet approval, according to reports. Prime Minister Perry Christie has yet to address the matter, despite telling reporters he ordered reports into the controversy.

When asked about Dr Rollins yesterday, Mr Davis, who is minister of works, said:

“The more I talk about him, the more you are keeping him in the news. My name is Brave . . .a little threat like that doesn’t concern me or the government.”

However Mr Roberts had a lot more to say about Dr Rollins.

He said Dr Rollins has lost the support of most his constituents, a conclusion he arrived at after meeting with about 40 Fort Charlotte residents at the PLP headquarters Monday night.

Mr Roberts added that Fort Charlotte constituents would help determine Dr Rollins’ future with the party.

The concerns of residents, he said, will be presented to the PLP council at its expected Thursday meeting.

“It is my prayer and hope that Dr Rollins will find his head and find his way and seek redemption,” Mr Roberts said. “We are a democratic organisation and whereas we might not always agree on some things, there is a way that one disseminates differences, just like a family, a family decides we’re going to go in this direction and the family goes in this direction. It might not be perfect, but there is strength in unity.”