By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Sunday 22nd April 2018)- Information reaching this media house indicates that a young man was shot dead early this morning in Phillips’ Village.
Such information has been confirmed by police.
The deadly incident is said to have taken place sometime after 1:00 am.
More details to be provided in a follow-up report.
By: Drizel Hanley
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 12th April 2018)-Immigration officer, Lisa Francis, was formally arrested and charged with the offences of Possession of Cannabis, Possession of Cannabis with Intent to Supply and Cultivation of Cannabis following a raid on Wednesday of last week (11th April) which yielded a large quantity of marijuana at her Conaree residence.
She was later granted bail in the amount of $25,000 with two sureties and under the conditions that she surrenders all travel documents to the court, and is to report to the Basseterre Police Station every Monday.
Additionally, Francis is facing a separate and unrelated charge of Doing an Act Tending and Intended to Pervert the Course of Justice, Contrary to Common Law which was committed on the July 28, 2017 in Basseterre.
It is understood that she assisted another of her sons, Xavier Corey Francis, to escape the country undetected while he was bail for a gun-related offence.
Corey, was charged with gun and ammunition possession in July of 2016 and subsequently granted $10,000 bail.
Ticardo Francis, another son who also resides at the Conaree home was also arrested and charged with Possession of Cannabis, Possession of Cannabis with Intent to Supply and Cultivation of Cannabis.
He was granted bail to the tune of $15,000.00.
Jack Crawford of Conaree and a juvenile were in the house with Francis when police conducted the operation.
Crawford was charged with the same three offences and his bail was also set at $15,000.00
By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 20th April 2018) – Appearing on ‘Inside the News’ on WINNFM last Saturday morning (14th April), Deputy Chairperson-elect of the People’s Action Movement (PAM) Sheryl Reid-while in studio with other members of the newly-elected executive committee- addressed a public “mis-thought” about the Party in claiming that PAM is “not disappearing. We are fully alive.”
Notably, PAM makes up the largest party body within the current Team Unity Government and the administration being headed by a non PAM member (Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris of the People’s Labour Party-PLP) has long been the subject of criticisms concerning the Party’s functioning to uplift itself.
Following the 2015 General Election, on St.Kitts the PAM Party won four seats, the St.Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) won three and the newly-formed PLP led by Dr. Harris with his lone seat.
The government was then formed with PAM, PLP coupled with the two Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) seats on the sister isle Nevis.
Dr. Harris, a former senior member of SKNLP led by Dr. Denzil Douglas, was fired from that administration in January 2013 by then Prime Minister Douglas surrounding his public undermining of the then government of which he was a part of. Dr. Harris also held the post as SKNLP Chairman.
SKNLP Chairperson Marcella Liburd has long said that the present Opposition Leader Dr. Douglas is the “glue” which brought the Unity concept into being.
In giving further comments of WINN FM, Reid remarked: “We need members to be onboard with us. We need our PAM people with us in order for us to grow from strength to strength in order for us to strengthen as a party so that we may live for another 53 years. One of the things that I would like us to do is go on a membership drive and get back those PAM stalwarts who we have not seen in a while. We are going to make sure that we get back our people under the banner with us and so that we can also try our very best to empower them as well.”
PAM’s Public Relations Officer-elect Jonelle Rawlins spoke about upcoming events including the annual May Day festivity that would cater for the Party members to “meet and mingle and get back to where we were before.”
The Party’s Deputy Leader-elect Cindy Demming said the PAM has it work to in becoming stronger.
“Though we are in Unity, we are three separate entities with individuality and with separate identities so the People’s Action Movement, we have our separate identity, we have our work to do and so if we are going to be stronger by virtue of that, the Unity organisation of which we are a part of will be stronger but people try to say things to cause in-fighting and separation.”
She continued: “I proudly say I am a PAM and proud but by virtue that my party is part of Unity, I too is a part of Unity but of course when I hit the high ways and by ways I’ll spread PAM message so as to empower people and get more support for the People’s Action Movement so we can have more seats and so by virtue of that Unity will be stronger but we will be PAM with six seats and plus in Unity.”
Demming classified more PAM seats to mean betterment for people within the Unity construct.
“…three separate parties, three different ideologies but we came together as one to make the Unity administration stronger but we are here, we continue to hit the road in making sure PAM grows in terms membership and seats; the more seats the more empowerment for people and opportunities.”
SKKNLP Chairperson Marcella Liburd, speaking on the Party-sponsored ‘Issues’ Programme on Wednesday this week (18th April) gave her impression about the PAM executive-elect members’ radio appearance that past weekend.
According to her: “Timothy Harris has really made PAM completely irrelevant and they are now struggling to find their identity.”
She went on to say: “I found it amazing that they are all saying ‘I am a PAM, I am a PAM.’ Imagine a Party who in existence for over fifty (50) years, the executive now has to go on radio to convince themselves and the public that they are PAM; that is how much Timothy Harris has made them irrelevant and I hear what they say they are doing is real change; they are looking for real change. Well I thought they got it already. I thought they had the real change since 2015; I ain’t know they are still looking for real change.”
Liburd labelled the PAM Party as being weak pointing out that Dr. Harris is the leader of that Party.
“The truth is , I don’t know who would want to be following PAM at this time with respect because the leadership is weak. Politics is about strong leadership not weak leadership; people telling you that regardless of how many seats they win , Timothy Harris gonna be the leader. What sort of weakling we have here? Nobody follows that; that’s not attractive and so Timothy is really the leader of PAM and he has made them completely irrelevant and so they are now struggling to find their identity.”
By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 20th April 2018)– Chief Engineer at the Public Works Department George Gilbert says phase one of the Rehabilitation of the island main road project –estimated at $6 million- involving local contractors is scheduled to begin shortly.
He made the disclosure during a media chit-chat immediately following a meeting hosted by his Department to interact with stakeholders of the project including contractors and members of the business community held on Thursday 19th April at the Old Girls School located on Victoria Road.
Gilbert informed of a two weeks timeframe for the ground work to start.
He added: “We are going to start from the airport roundabout there going back to Keys. That’s going to be one of the first starting area. Then we are going to start [in Camps village] by Best Buy. There is a drainage issue on the opposite of Best Buy, we are going to take care of that so that will be started shortly also.
Earlier this month, an official contract signing ceremony for five (5) local contractors participating in the Special Capital Road Projects was held at the airport roundabout.
Those businesses are Allie Construction, Boonies Construction, B&B Ltd., Huggins and Son Construction and O’Loughlin Construction while ADeB Consultants Limited (of Jamaica) is also involved.
Asked by this reporter about the confidence level in regard to the local contractors, he commented: “Well I think all of them are excited, motivated and Public Works and the consultants would work closely with them to ensure that they give us quality work and work which will be done in a timely manner.”
Gilbert gave details of the work done in the project planning and highlighted what would be done to tackle challenges.
“There was a previous study done where what was done, we actually went through the island’s main road- picked up the potholes, all of the low points, all of the areas that lack infrastructure such as sidewalks which were required and we actually noted them then we went back and did an analysis. We even had a drone here flying over to help us in picking up the information.”
He continued: “What we intend to do is to work closely with the contractors so what we would do is to identify the problems before they occur and ask the contractors that whenever they perceive that there will be a delay that they inform us and we will see how best we can mitigate against those delays.”
In relation to the work approach in light of the upcoming hurricane season (June to November), the Public Works Department official said: “After we start the work, we will review the work as we go along and if we find that there will be any delays, we will ask the contractors to speed up overtime and maybe on the weekends and maybe to even increase the number of workforce.”
By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts ( Thursday 19th April 2018) – Following last Friday’s (13th April) deadly traffic accident in the Sandy Point area, a brother has been taken into police custody on the charge of causing death of his sibling due to dangerous driving.
Killed was 26-year-old Private Kechel Pemberton of Sandy Point while the driver Private Kyle Woodley of Newton Ground (his brother) was left injured-both of the St.Kitts-Nevis Defence Force.
Reliable information reaching this media house had indicated that the two soldiers were brothers.
In response, Captain Kayode Sutton of the St.Kitts-Nevis Defence Force was contacted about such and as confirmed by him: “Yes, they are brothers…on father’s side.”
The accident occurred along the Island Main Road in the vicinity of Brimstone Hill at around 4:00 P.M.
According to police, a post mortem examination performed on the body of the Private Kechel Pemberton of Sandy Point on Monday 16th April by Resident Pathologist Dr. Adrian Nunez concluded that “death was as a result of hypovolemic shock and multiple traumatic injuries due to a traffic accident.”
Reportedly, on Wednesday 18th April, Private Woodley was charged on a warrant, in the first instance, for the offence of Causing Death by Dangerous Driving.
By: Drizel Hanley
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 19th April 2018)-Under the theme ‘Implementing Sustainable Approach to Enhance Climate Resilience, Agricultural Marketing and to Advance Economic Agricultural Development’, the officials at the St. Kitts Department of Agriculture are ready to stage the twenty-fifth edition of its two-day Agriculture Open Day on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th April.
The yearly Open Day event which will be held at the Department’s Grounds in La Guerite provides many opportunities for farmers, friends, family and young ones to interact.
“I think the annual Agricultural Exhibition is provides the perfect opportunity to achieve several objectives. For example, to showcase what is possible in terms of Agriculture production”,” a senior worker at the agricultural department said.
“It is also an effort to stimulate our own food security index so that we can grow more of what we need and more of what we consume”, the representative added.
Several booths will be on hand displaying animal husbandry, different toxic plants, back yard garden techniques, grafting, hydroponics and agro processing.
On exhibition as well as on sale will be fruits and vegetables, meat and meat products, fruit trees, agro-processed items, agricultural chemicals, fish products, ornamentals and different types of animal feed.
Highlights of the Open Day will include expanded food courts, mechanical bull, and bouncing castle for kids and lots of educational games.
Live entertainment will be provided by Nu Vybes Band, Grandmasters Band, DJ Shaggy, Hellfire Int, DJ Ek Real Right, Byron Messia, Footsy, Ease Out, Faybo, Urban and Teflon (Wild fire).
Adults pay an entrance fee of EC$2.00 and admission is free for children in uniform.
By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (BASSETERRE, St.Kitts) – Music Festival Chairman Damion Hobson says online ticket sales have been going well.
“Online tickets sales have been going very well. As of Friday [13th Friday], we are up to about 900 general admission tickets being sold and roughly 300 VIP tickets being sold online and we expect even more.”
He was at the time addressing the media a press briefing held on Tuesday 17th April at the Warner Park Cricket Stadium designated event venue.
About concert sponsorship side of things, Hobson informed that “We are in the process of meeting with sponsors and partners. That also is going very well. Hopefully by the end of the month, we’ll be able to unveil the full list of sponsors for the Music Festival.”
The final wave of entertainers to complete this year’s entertainers was held in February and early sale of discounted online tickets kicked started at EC$95 increasing by $10 every month leading up to the festivity.
The Chairman of the Production and Artistes Selection Committee for the St.Kitts Music Festival, Jonel Powell, remarked that the line-up reflects quality over quantity summed up from the EC$2 million budget.
As a result, there has been an increase of ticket price of EC$135 (US$50) per night from EC$100 (US$40).
The 22nd yearly three-nightly concert is slated to take place from Thursday 27 to Saturday 30th June.
The official line -up for the respective nights are as follows:
Thursday- Nu Vybes Band International (De Sugar Band) and the reigning Sugar Mas Road March Champions Small Axe Band, Spice, Destra, KES The Band and Nailah Blackman.
Friday- Sizzla Kalonji, August Alsina, Ishawna, Wayne Wonder, Chackademus & Pliers, Dejour and Byron Messia.
Saturday- Fetty Wap, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Patti LaBelle and Rhythm of the Beat
By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Wednesday 18th April 2018)- For the upcoming 22nd annual St.Kitts Music Festival in June, grass mats to protect the field at the Warner Park Cricket Stadium along with other new changes like the direction of the stage are expected for the redesigned layout.
Information about such was collectively revealed when Music Festival Chairman Damion Hobson, Chairman of the Logistics Committee Robert ‘Bobby’ Morris and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sports Stanley Knight addressed members of the media during a press briefing held yesterday (17th April) relating to an onsite review of the event venue.
Hobson highlighted the reason for the visit saying:
“This morning we’ve come to Warner Park to look at the venue because we feel that the new ideas behind the Music Festival to get crowd participation, to get spectator participation is to have a better venue.”
He added: “There were a number of challenges last year with the venue and we feel that by coming together early with our partners…this is a way for us to get it right for 2018 or certainly put us on the right foot for 2018. We have redesigned the layout. We’ve redesigned the entire park – from entrance bars located stage is turned and so we expect a much better feel for the patrons for the St.Kitts Music Festival.”
Hobson said that day’s outing was the first in a series of media briefings noting that the idea is to keep the media and general public updated leading up to the festival.
PS Knight touched on the usefulness of the grass mats which been acquired for about quarter of a million dollars.
“I think that this is going to be an opportunity for us to see the full potential of the grass mats because unlike Carnival where the mats were down for two, three weeks, this is now a case where we expect basically about a one week turn around because when the grass mats go down, the facilities go up, the facilities go down and grass mats go back up.”
As understood, the stage, the VIP areas and other facilities would be set up on the grass mat flooring.
Morris, in talking the logistics language concerning the event venue, shared: “Based on a lot of feedback from last year, we did modify the orientation. In this new orientation, you would see the stage would be oriented slightly southwest and that gives us an opportunity to better enhance the visitor arrival of the patrons; a lot of this activity now would be based around the patrons having a good time.”
He informed that the main entrance has been relocated coming down the western gate that separates the football from the cricket area.
In referring to concerns expressed by bar operators, he explained that the main entrance will also enhance the experience of their patrons saying that they can “stay at the bar and look down at the grounds and the idea also is to wrap the VIP areas around the stage.”
“We have gone through some lengths in making sure that we protect the cricket pitch so we would have barricades on the eastern side as well as the access …a more controlled access,” he added.
Morris also mentioned last year’s access issues onto the grounds where there was need for remedial work after the demobilisation whilst adding “but this year with the strategic partners we will ensure, there is less impact on the cricket grounds…but most of all it is a much workable area, the layout and hopefully we will do what we intend to achieve.”
More details in this week’s newspaper.
By: Drizel Hanley
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Tuesday 17th April 2018) –A 4.4 magnitude earthquake rocked St. Kitts earlier today (Tuesday 17th April) causing widespread panic.
According the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Centre, at around 4:26 P.M., an earthquake occurred south of Antigua.
It was further noted that the quake’s epicenter was located at 16.95°N and 61.82°W with a magnitude of 4.4 and depth of 21km and was felt in Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Montserrat.
One resident in the Basseterre area told this media house that items including picture frames on his wall fell to the ground.
Many people took to Facebook expressing their fears about the quake.
The National Emergency Management agency (NEMA) did not report any damage or death resulting from the earthquake.
Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 17, 2018 (SKNIS): A call is going out for submissions for the official theme for the 35th Anniversary of Independence of St. Kitts and Nevis. Against this backdrop, citizens and residents alike are encouraged to tap into their creative minds.
The theme competition was officially launched by William V. Hodge, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Chairman of the Education Sub-Committee for Independence, on Monday, April 16, who noted that the deadline for submission of entries is Wednesday, May 02, 2018.
He added that late entries would not be acknowledged or considered. All entries must be submitted in writing and sent via email, postal mail or placed in a drop box at the entrance of Government Headquarters located on Church Street in Basseterre, or the administrative building of the Ministry of Education located on the third floor of the Cable Building. Entries can also be dropped off at the headquarters of the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) in Charlestown.
The chairman shared the guidelines for the theme competition so as to give participants a better understanding, and encouraged them to pay attention to the criteria to ensure that they meet eligibility requirements.
“The theme must be concise, memorable and certainly no longer than a sentence. Composers should aim for no more than six to eight words. The theme should focus on patriotism and love of country. An internal rhyme scheme and rhythm will enhance the theme or the slogan,” said Mr. Hodge. “The theme should accurately reflect the country’s realities on the ground and common shared future to which all citizens should reasonably aspire.”
Permanent Secretary Hodge said that the committee looks forward to receiving an abundance of submissions, especially from young people, as it is important for them to play a vital role in the country’s future development.
“The 35th Anniversary of Independence is a significant event in the life of our people. As a sovereign nation it is imperative that our young people in particular, develop and foster a sense of patriotism, pride and love for country. They are our greatest human resource and it is imperative that their sense of patriotism be enhanced,” said the permanent secretary.
A maximum of two submissions are allowed per person, and every submission “must be new and original”, as old and plagiarized entries will result in immediate disqualification.
Entries can be emailed to william.hodge@moeskn.org, or independence.themeskn@gmail.com. If participants are using the postal service, entries must be addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, 3rd Floor – Cable Building, New Street, Basseterre.
The 34th Independence Anniversary was celebrated under the theme “Youth, Vision, Integrity: Securing our Nation’s Prosperity,” and was won by Donnette Dyer-Maloney of Nevis.