~ Enough is Enough and it's better late than never, we were fooled to give up power.~
Marigot:--- Five members of Team Gibbs and members of the Territorial Council have formed a group in order to obtain information from the President of the Collectivity Daniel Gibbs. Those that formed the group are Sofia Codrington Carti, Maude Ascent Gibbs, Annick Petrus, Yawo Nyuadzi, Romeo Piper, and Bernadette Davis.
Also part of the press conference was Steven Patrick who supports the initiative but said he will not be joining the group because he felt that the forming of the group took place way too late while there were signals of lack of communication over two years ago. Patrick said that forming a group three months prior to a territorial election looks more political. Patrick said the members of the Territorial Council that formed the group had the same opportunity over a year ago when he was basically kicked out from his position and they did nothing. Patrick also confirmed that he submitted his resignation as a Vice President and to date, he has not received confirmation from the President and Prefecture.
Codrington in her remarks at a press conference on Wednesday said that the group that was formed on Tuesday, January 4th, 2022 is a working group and any member of the Territorial Council can join. She said that the members including Vice Presidents have been asking their leader and President of the COM for pertinent information and that information was not forthcoming. Carti said the Collectivity spent the peoples' money to conduct studies and when it has been finalized they never saw the reports even though they requested it.
Carti explained that they have had enough and even though late, they have decided to act. She said in 2017- 2018 the members of Team Gibbs were basically fooled or tricked into giving the President a “Power of Attorney” so he could take decisions and get back to them. However, Carti said the President never gave them any updates on the decisions he took. She also said that the President then took the “mandate” they gave him and handed it over to the Administration.
The members of Team Gibbs that are now in the group or attended the press conference said they sounded the alarm from very early about the lack of communication and information from the President yet they held on hoping that things would have changed. Carti said since September 2021 she notified the President that she would not be contesting the 2022 election on the TEAM GIBBS slate, neither would she support him or his team.
Senator Annick Petrus said that she wrote several letters and questioned many things that transpired but never got any response from the President. She said what is more disturbing is the fact that report the Agence Francaise Anticorruption (AFA) report is out there and they never received it even though they were all interrogated. Petrus said that when they were arrested two years ago and placed in garde a vue they were asked questions about things they knew nothing about and even then no information from the President was forthcoming.
Romeo Piper who became a Member of the Territorial Council last year also expressed concerns as to how the President of the Collectivity operates. He said the peoples' money is spent on studies and reports and members of the Territorial Council have no access to these documents even though they are public documents. Piper said these reports and studies have to be published on the Collectivity’s website but it is always hidden.
During the press conference, Yawo Nyuiadi shut down Steven Patrick when he was explaining some of what he experienced as a member of Team Gibbs and why he believed the group of elected members acted too late and that they should go all the way and vote out the president. Nyuiadi even tried to shut down questions posed to Patrick and other members of the group simply because he was not comfortable with the questions posed.
