One-term Minister of National Security Marvin Dames is stark raving mad with outgoing Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle who aired the Minnis administration’s dirty laundry when he said the former government pressured him to sideline respected police officers.
Dames, a former senior police officer, left the force after his colleague Ellison Greenslade was selected as commissioner of police instead of him.
When Dames was appointed national security minister, he sought revenge on Greenslade by removing him as police chief and sending all of the senior officers promoted by Greenslade on forced vacation leave.
Clayton Fernander, Leamond Deleveaux and Ken Strachan were then removed from active duty and assigned to pointless positions in government ministries.
Dames, who selected Rolle as police chief due to his perceived support for the Free National Movement, never thought the top cop would turn on him after the FNM government’s defeat in September 2021 and tell the country that it was the Minnis Administration that victimized the honorable officers, not him.
“Fernander was treated poorly. I go on record by saying that. Him, Leamond Deleveaux, Ken Strachan, they were treated poorly,” Rolle said.
“You all saw what happened and some of my colleagues were placed on leave, okay, unceremoniously I would add. I never supported it.
“I kept trying to find out why. I could never get an answer,” he added.
However, in a twist of fate, it was Dames who ended up unemployed when the FNM was voted out while Greenslade enjoys an exciting position as Bahamas High Commissioner to the UK, Fernander becomes Commissioner of Police and Deleveaux becomes Deputy Commissioner.
Rolle, who rose to the top of the force after overseeing the political prosecutions of three former Progressive Liberal Party parliamentarians, found himself handcuffed to a mean and spiteful government that used its short-lived power to control senior officials who should’ve been acting independently.
Minnis, Dames and new FNM Leader Michael Pintard have been silent, so far, on Rolle’s revelations.
“We had a deputy commissioner that was retiring and I said I need help. I was carrying this and I said, I’m going to bring them back and I was prevented from doing so,” Rolle said.