Government and opposition trade blames over fake BBC video. The DLP government and the UWP opposition are currently trading blames over a BBC video report accusing PM Skerrit and another regional leader of stealing over one billion dollars and being investigated by the US Justice Department. Experts have revealed that the video is fake, but the ruckus it generated remains ongoing.
Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan blamed the UWP for the video, adding some elements supportive of the opposition orchestrated the video. One of the persons the government suspected created the video is Marlon Giraudel, a Dominican resident in the US. But he has since denied having anything to do with the video, saying it is fake plus that the DLP administration is only being mischevious by suspecting him.
“I have come to the realization that we have lost some of our people through a culture of ignorance and who will believe anything they hear on Q-95 or Facebook that has a negative spin about Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit,”, SC Astaphan alleged.
According to the senior counsel, whoever was behind the damaging video was ruled by malice, greed, jealousy and ignorance. But Isaac Baptiste, president of the UWP, said there may not be any truth in the video, but the fact still remains that Skerrit must account for the missing $1.2 billion CBI funds.
“It’s not logical; it’s not practical; it’s not based on current issues and we think it’s DLP propaganda trying to change the narrative on the accounting for the $1.2 billion Dominicans are demanding that it be accounted for,” Baptiste said. “We want to know, where the money gone.”
He said it does not matter whether the prime minister accounts for the missing fund before or after the election, but what matters is that he does while remaining the minister of finance.
Giraudel said he knew the video making the rounds was fake within 10 seconds of watching it. This according to him was because the attorney-general in the video was the one in office during the Obama administration. “I live in America; I watch CNN every day so that is things I knew off my head,” he said.
Giraudel however insists that whether fake or not, Skerrit must give account of his government to the people. He said there is no point for any fake video to circulate in order to incriminate the prime minister for anything, “his own actions were enough for us to vote him out,” he stated.
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
