Howard Johnson - FNM Candidate for South Eleuthera
Captain Stephen Russell, where are you?
Nassau, Bahamas — Bahamas Press is once again following developments in South Eleuthera where HO JO [Howard Johnson] the FNM candidate will contest the constituency.
Johnson could run into problems with meeting nomination qualifications, as he appears unqualified to contest the seat in the upcoming general elections.
A veto by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham came last week following a Party Council’s decision to drop Johnson for Gregory Town resident Martin Albury. The decision by the PM to veto the council’s plans have angered some party officers.
You see, Johnson’s mother is a stalwart councilor in the PLP. She was one of Pindling’s henchwomen supporting the opposition back in 1992. However, Emily Petty has been inactive with the party since the days of Pindling.
More importantly, FNMs of longstanding are concentrating on the fact that while they are being discharged by the Party; [Kenneth Russell, Kendal Wright and Verne Grant], a number of PLPs are being planted in the FNM – many of whom have no idea of the organization’s struggle. The developments are creating rifts deep inside the party.
Johnson, who still lives home with his mother after returning to Eleuthera following a bitter divorce in the US, is flat broke. We are told the Party had to rent a car for him to get around the island. And here’s where our story begins.
Captian Stephen Russell head of NEMA could find himself answering some tough questions.
Sources in the OPM, have provided BP with more shocking information, which confirms a senior politician may have directed officials out of NEMA to pay Johnson $10,000 for services, which are yet to be explained.
Captain Stephen Russell is head of NEMA, and from the paper trail, we are certain he cannot tell the public why was $10,000 used to pay the financially-strapped FNM candidate.
According to documents shown to us, NEMA paid the funds to Johnson some weeks ago; only days after he had returned to the country and was approached by the FNM.
NEMA’s funds are derived from donations and are suppose to be used for repairs to victims following natural disasters. But get this.
Howard Johnson owns no home, not even a chicken coop. He has no car. He owes for a unit in the US where he has fled. He has no business license in the Bahamas. He has no business period to render services to NEMA. He is not registered with national insurance and from the looks things, one must ask the question if Johnson is still Bahamian.
One FNM told BP, “We are not the FNM of the past. This is a different organization and I really cannot say what we have become. We in the FNM have turned corrupt, are riddle with scandal after scandal, and are bathing bald naked in a black sea of secrecy. This is not the FNM I am accoustomed to.”
The bigger question is all this though is this – Who high up in the Government authorized the payment of NEMA’s funds to Johnson?
And here is an even bigger question; for what purpose[s] did the island commissioner issue the funds to Howard Johnson for?
From the looks a things and based on the papers shown to us, all we could remember are the lines presented by Malcolm X: Ya been had! Took! Hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Run-a-muck and LIED TO, cause in the FNM WE DELIVER!
