On Tuesday afternoon with the inability to prove his accusations made against Richard Fredrick, it was decided by the Speaker of The House Claudius Francis and members of the chamber that Allen Chastanet will be denied access to the chamber until he issues an apology and withdraw his statements made against the minster and the government.
Allen Chastanet took to his Facebook account and said he refuses to issue an apology.
“Today I was sanctioned by parliament and I was forced to walk out to defend democracy in this country. I refuse to apologize to Richard Fredrick for a blatant act of corruption and his persistent lies. Saint Lucians deserve better!” he wrote.
The option leader shared in a four-minute-long video his reasoning for refusing to apologize.
“Today I was sanctioned by the parliament and I was forced to walk out to defend democracy in this country. I refuse to give an apology for a lie that was told by Richard Fredrick, a lie that I clearly proved that he did and perpetuated.
He is attempting to confuse people as to the land that was sold at banannes. The truth is that an evaluation was done of the that land in 2013, and it was identified as parcel 11. In 2014 a mutation was done and parcel 11 was decided into parcels 50 and 51.
51 is simply enough land to put a footpath so there is no difference in size between parcel 50 and parcel 11, both of them measure one hectare as you all would say mem-bete-mem-pwel
The valuation that was done in 2013 was for $67 a square foot the valuation that was done in 2021 by Mr St Clair was $35 a square foot and then the land was sold for $27 a square foot even more egregious is that the land was not even put out to tender a piece of land that should never have been sold in the first place, a piece of land that he claimed he offered to SLASPA yet he never spoke to the Prime Minister, he never spoke to the minister of infrastructure Mr. King instead he spoke to Darren Cenac.
He never spoke to his other colleague Ernest Hillaire who was the minister of investment and is the district representative for that area and offered the land to invest and if we are to believe him and all he was wanting to do was to sell the land for a maximum amount of money to build a new headquarters on the Chaussee, then why wouldn’t he put it out to tender?
Now the speaker of the house sided with Mr Fredrick and said he refused to recognize the valuation that was done in 2013 and is asking me as an MP to prove that there was no corruption. It is my job as the leader of the opposition and as an MP in Parliament to question and hold this government accountable.
It is for them to satisfy all of us that there was no corruption. Why is it the government has refused to answer basic questions? Why was it not put out to tender? Why would you have sold it at a price so much less than what it was being valued at? All of us are Saint Lucians we all live here. Where can you buy waterfront land in Castries for $27 a square foot? Why wasn’t the land offered to somebody else? Who is the person that bought the land? How did they identify that person? What’s the plan that’s going on the land up to now there’s no answer but you want to come to the house and you want to censor me and cause me to apologize to a lie that the minister has said. I refuse to do it! And I will stand up for the people of this country all the time.” he shared.
The opposition leader calls for Saint Lucians to take a stand as he says the government is abusing their office.
