By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ENGLERSTON MP Glenys Hanna Martin said she does not know the extent of the personal or political relationships Peter Nygard cultivated with people in the Progressive Liberal Party.

She added that she has never directly received money from the fashion mogul who now stands accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women over a 25-year period, many of them young Bahamian girls.

“From what I’m hearing,” she told reporters outside the House of Assembly yesterday, “he did donate to our party, so indirectly I probably did benefit from (the) funding that he gave. I’m sure members of the Free National Movement similarly benefitted.”

Nygard’s relationships with political and law enforcement officials have drawn scrutiny since he was indicted on racketeering and sexual assault charges in New York in December.

“I don’t know if you can say the Nygard issue is dragging the PLP,” Mrs Hanna Martin said.

“There are some aspects of our organisation that are being dragged in. I think if any of those allegations are true, it speaks more deeply to more systemic issues in this country that is across the board... within the system and politically.

“You can’t point the finger and say ‘it’s them, it’s them’ when this has allegedly been going on for decades and you’ve had different administrations and it’s happened. If any of this is true, it has to give us pause to reflect on this sort of grounding that we’ve had in this country and to what extent it may be our view that we desensitised ourselves to the rumours and the assertions that have popped up from time to time and just co-existed with other things. I think this is more a reflection for us as a people and to the extent that any individual is implicated by any of this activity then you know we have to see what happens there.”

The US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York said its indictment of Nygard arose out of a long pattern of alleged criminal conduct that involved the United States, Canada and The Bahamas.

Ahead of likely extradition proceedings, Nygard, who was arrested in Manitoba, Canada in December, is trying to secure bail.

Mrs Hanna Martin said if the allegations against him are true, “it takes a lot of turning of heads for that to continue to exist without anyone raising any alarm, and it’s at all levels. While we can make a political football of it and maybe you can do that and if you do you might be throwing it on both sides, I think this is a moment where we have to reflect on ourselves as a people to see why we have now risen to a global prominence in matters such as this and these allegations which span many years.”

She added: “I don’t want to comment on any sort of involvement with personalities in the organisation because I don’t have first hand knowledge of it, I’ve seen what everyone else has seen, I’ve heard what everyone else has heard and we’ll have to see how it pans out. It may be subject of fair comment, but I do not want it to distract though from what is the issue, and it’s the issue that we all face as a Bahamian people, that this is now playing out in the global consciousness about what has happened in our country.”

Meanwhile, there continued to be a lack of clarity yesterday on how the Royal Bahamas Police Force is handling allegations that Nygard bribed certain senior police officers.

National Security Minister Marvin Dames told reporters last month that he is confident the RBPF will investigate allegations involving officers, but when asked about that investigation on Tuesday, Police Commissioner Paul Rolle told the press “you need to speak to Minister Dames.” Pressed on the matter, he said: “I said he made the comments and you can get the update from him.”

Outside of the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr Dames could not say if a bribery investigation is ongoing.

“That’s a question that you have to take up with the Commissioner,” he said.

“The point I’m making here is this, it’s standard operating procedure in any law enforcement business when names are called involving public figures in anything especially of this magnitude, I would want to know…if people were making these serious allegations about me, I would wish for my name to be clear. It’s standard. I don’t want us to get the impression the commissioner is opposing something I said, because that is not the case.”