Well, today we heard from Brian “Yellowman” Audinett. He invited the media to the U.D.P.’s Queen Square office, where he refuted claims that he was fired because he stole appliances from the U.D.P. headquarters. Audinett says he took what was rightfully his. Here is how he puts it.
Brian “Yellowman” Audinett
Brian “Yellowman” Audinett, Former U.D.P. Councillor Candidate
“I take two refrigerator, a TV and a microwave to the United Democratic Party when Ms. Carol Babb was the secretary general of the party. On Monday March eighteenth I went to work and received a letter. I want to read that letter which was sent to me by Ms. Sharry Obano which was sent to her by the Leader of the Opposition, soon to go, Shyne Barrow, I forget his name and all. Dear Mr. Audinett pending review of your overall job performance and in keeping with adjustments necessary in order to position the party for victory in the next general election, it has been decided it is best to discontinue your employment at the UDP secretariat. Nothing fih do with theft, nothing fih do with me carry any fridge, microwave and TV. The thing is, when I moved my stuff out the building is when this letter was sent to me and I told Sharry and Michael Peyrefitte that since I can’t come back to the party office, the party I fought for all my life while Shyne sat down in a prison in America that I will take my stuff from the office. This is after receiving this letter. That is an absolute lie.”
Reporter
“Do you have a receipt for it?”
Brian “Yellowman” Audinett
“Yes, I will present my receipt. If I knew you all would have asked me for a receipt, I would have gotten it for you. I think I have one for the fridge. I have two for the fridges. I don’t know for the TV.”
Reporter
“Is it for you or Ms. Carol Babb?”
Brian “Yellowman” Audinett
“It is mine, not Ms. Carol. I went and got those, and I bring those. At the time the office had no fridge and nothing.”
And as we mentioned, on Friday, Brian “Yellowman” Audinett, visited the Belize Police Department to file a report against his party leader, Moses “Shyne” Barrow. Police are reportedly investigating the allegations that Audinett raised in that report against Barrow. In the meantime, Audinett contends that the real reason he was fired from the U.D.P. is because he told Barrow that he was not fit to be party leader.
Brian “Yellowman” Audinett, Former U.D.P. Councillor Candidate
“This party belongs to the people and there is no way “Shyne” Barrow or anybody would stop me from going to the office.”
Reporter
A settlement deed was proposed, did you sign it?
Brian “Yellowman” Audinett
“Absolutely not. Shyne believes that everybody is chasing money, and that people are desperate. We get here because the election happened on the sixth of March. The Monday after the election when we lost, we called a meeting with the Mesopotamia executive and so. When we called that meeting, I told everybody we needed to speak up. I said, you can’t the talk behind that man back and nuh tell the man the truth. I said, you wah hear right now, because the man deh wah tell yo how deh feel. Well, I speak out and I said Shyne, I am going to be honest with you, from the first time you run against Tracey, cause the first time ih run against Tracey I told him personally, I don’t believe you are fit enough to represent the party as the leader of the party. In that very same meeting, I said Shyne you are not fit. We have been in opposition for the last three years and we make absolutely no gain. Our numbers in Belize City were up and went down. While we were on the campaign trail the people were saying we will not vote for unu if you don’t get rid of Shyne. It is not that we don’t respect Shyne, but I be honest with him, the people in Mesopotamia are upset. Our numbers dropped drastically in Mesop, why because the people don’t like how he speaks to them, how he talks to them. He disrespects the people and I being the one weh nuh fraid fih speak out tell him and because I speak out, he fired me. What he needs to tell the media is the absolute reason why he fired me is because I told him he is not fit to lead the party. And there is no joke about that. He is not fit.”
Rodney “Files” Lord, Audinett’s brother, invited the media to speak with him at the U.D.P.’s Mesopotamia constituency office late this evening. Lord is the U.D.P. Chairman of the constituency. He says he was the one who called the meeting that Audinett claims led to his termination. And, according to Lord, Audinett barely even spoke in the meeting. So, he is refuting his brother’s claim against Opposition Leader, Moses “Shyne” Barrow.
“There is a member in this party, you know weh you call deh caucus? I don’t know nothing about that. I know about UDP. Deh could seh all kinda thing. The party leader been the tek lick from all over the corner and it is never true. So if I am to either compel if Yellow is telling the truth or a lie, if it is left up to me, it is a lie. The UDP gawn through how many leaders so far, two since 2020, Mr. Faber and Mr. Barrow. We make a change from Mr. Faber due to all kind of allegations. The party make their fight, and that had to do with the Caucus of Change to nuh? Yellow man saying that the party leader needs to go as leader of the party? Who will be the next leader of this party? Everybody try, Ms. Tracey tried and failed. I don’t know what my good brother, my beloved brother gets his story from or what he is trying to do. I am the one who caused that meeting to happen because there were things that needed to straighten out and it had nothing to do with the party leader, if anybody do something wrong, if anybody take any money from him or do anything that has to do with the election. We had that meeting based on a postmortem, what went wrong. We nuh loose eena Mesopotamia. I could have been better, but that meeting had nothing like that. That was a positive meeting.”
This morning, a junior immigration officer from Corozal Town was arraigned for extortion. Allegations are that on Friday, March fifteenth, thirty-one-year-old Monique Escalante demanded three thousand U.S. dollars from Jamaican national Janhoi Richards while he was at the Philip Goldson International Airport. Escalante claims she was legally authorized to do so as an immigration officer. Escalante was offered bail in the sum of eight thousand dollars and a surety of the same amount, which she met. As a part of Escalante’s bail conditions, she is to surrender her travel documents to the court, abstain from contacting Richards, and report to the Racoon Street Police Station every Friday, effective this week. In an interview with Escalante’s attorney, Audrey Matura, she claimed that the arrest of her client is merely a scapegoat for other immigration officers taking advantage of their position, but she also maintained that her client is innocent.
Audrey Matura
Audrey Matura, Attorney For Defendant
“The first thing I’ll say is that it’s interesting what is happening. If the department believes there’s a problem up at the airport, They need to locate it beyond trying to use my client as a scapegoat and I say that because the second thing is that, the facts as is being stated is very questionable because according to the records that they will have there is that Mister Richards who’s making these allegations, came into the country of the fifteenth of March. And I saw the report gave the impression that as this. alleged incident happened; he ran to the police to get help. That’s not true. He went to the police the twentieth of March and what the department and people who are concerned are not saying is that he only made a report after he tried to leave Belize through the Belize Mexico border and the immigration officers there stopped him and then he came up with this story. A very important thing on the point of this person, mister Richards, that made the allegations, when he came into this country, he said that he would be staying at Belcove Hotel, that he would leave Belize the twenty-second of March via the same airline going to Panama. He attempts to leave Belize to Mexico border, Belize Mexico border. What the senior officials need to tell us the public is where is he? Where’s the record that he left? Because the real scam is not what they’re accusing my client of doing. The real scam is who in the department is running the rocket to help people to get through to the border, to leave this country and transit to Mexico. That’s where the real issue is. Like I said, my client is just the scapegoat. So I think they need to account and give proof if this man has left the jurisdiction And if he hasn’t based on what he declared as the reason he’s coming in where are the charges against him?”
The men accused of facilitating the landing of a drug plane in the south in 2021 appeared in court today. They are known as the Bladden Twelve, and today the trial judge adjourned the proceedings. That’s because the attorney for some of the accused, Oscar Selgado, is incarcerated and unable to represent them. Attorney Richard Bradley explained.
Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney for Defendants
“We are a bit taken aback, but it is unavoidable, at least for this morning, if not for the rest of the day. Four of the accused in the Bladden drug plane, drug trafficking, landing of a plane without permission case, those four persons had the illustrious Oscar Selgado as their attorney. He is unable to make it this morning because he doesn’t control his time. So, the four persons have asked and one of our colleagues attorney is going to represent them. And of course that only came up this morning when they all came to court. So, the Magistrate quite rightly said that they are entitled to be properly represented and so she agreed to the request for adjournment in relation to that matter. Hoping that we would then come bright and early on Holy Thursday to try and get a full morning but like bad luck Mr. Jones has also received a last minute notice that he has been appointed by the high court to represent a person in a murder trial so he’s going to try and see how he could get that sorted out this afternoon. And in relation to Thursday that is not going to work. So we are going, God willing, on the third day of April to get a full day and thereafter if things remain on track, I repeat on track, then the 8th of April we will continue and between myself and the others we’ll try and see how far we could get before a day advanced by the 9th day of April.”
Two men survived separate shooting incidents over the weekend in Belize City. One of them was Ashton Myers. He was shot at on Sunday evening while at his residence on Freedom Street. Investigators say that Myers was shot several times. The victim was rushed to the K.H.M.H., where he remains in a stablecondition. ACP Hilberto Romero shared more details.
“Information is that he was sitting in front of his yard when a vehicle came in the area and a person came out and fired several shots towards his direction. Again, several persons are detained and are being interviewed in regards to this report.
Hipolito Novelo
The person’s being interviewed and in detention, they know the victim?
A.C.P Hilberto Romero
“We have information that, it is over some rival that they have in that area. And yes, they know each other.”
Hipolito Novelo
The victim has provided an official statement to police.
A.C.P Hilberto Romero
“Not as yet. He receiving treatment as soon as he recovers, that will be done.”
Later that Sunday night, Belize City police were called out to an area near Jane Usher Boulevard. There they found Fredrick Garbutt, suffering from several gunshot injuries. He was rushed to the K.H.M.H., where he is in a stable condition. ACP Hilberto Romero says that several persons have been detained.
“His presently still listed in a stable condition at KHMH. Several persons have been detained and are being interviewed in regards to this report. Yes, he’s from that area.”
Reporter
“That area seems to have been heating up recently. We had the Troy Hyde area not to far from where this happened. Are you guys taking any special focus on the genocide?”
ACP Hilberto Romero
“Yes, there are several patrols and specialized units in that area, uh, covering the various gang bases. This person was walking on Jane Oshawa Boulevard and he was targeted.”
The budget debate concluded late on Friday evening. During his closing statements, Prime Minister John Briceño pointed out that the National Budget is designed to help people, not based on party politics, but everyone, based on need. And the assistance, he said, spreads across the various ministries that deal with education and scholarships, natural resources and land, and other areas of need.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“The broad reach of the budget also exposes the failure of those on the other side. Year after year, they have mostly nothing good to say about the budget, nothing but criticize, criticize and complain. I want to say to the voters of Mesopotamia, in Albert, in Queen’s Square, in Collet, in Corozal North, that you should not accept excuses from your area representatives for what is their own failure to identify and to source assistance for you, where such programs are a part of the National Budget. The National Budget is not designed to assist only the P.U.Ps. When increments are given to the public officers deh nuh give deh because this one da U.D.P and this one da P.U.P. We give that based on merit.
Our budget is working for all the people. The Ministry of Education supports students with scholarships. Dehn nuh ask dehn if dehn da P.U.P or U.D.P. They look at what you need and give them a scholarship. The Ministry of Natural Resources, when they’re holding their clinics, dehn nuh goh and tell the people, “You have to bring a note.” Dehn tend to everybody weh show up.”
The Prime Minister also summarized some of the accomplishments that his government has realized over the time they have been in government. He spoke of the benefits raising the minimum wage has brought to Belizeans who were earning just over three dollars an hour when they got in office, to how they have been able to see the rate of inflation decrease over the past year.
Prime Minister John Briceño
“How could you not celebrate the fact that when you raise from – where was it per month – when the minimum wage was at $3.30 and went up to $5, over 40,000 Belizeans benefitted. And the honourable member from Belize Rural Central said it best: “A rising tide raises all boats,” because what has happened, I was talking to Michael Bowen a few months ago and he was telling me, “I can’t hire anybody at minimum wage anymore. I have to increase my salaries to $8 and $9. The call centres (interruption). The point I’m trying to make is that salaries have gone up all over this country, and yes, when we spoke to the I.M.F they said that it has affected inflation a little bit. But what do you want? Do you want to continue to have high unemployment and paying the people on pittance? Well, I rather we raise the salaries to the people even if we have to deal with wa lee bit ah inflation, which is what we’re doing because now it’s going down. People are making more money, and that’s something to be proud of, my brother. You’re supposed to be celebrating that fact. They have more money. When you have more money you could buy more and when you buy more, the businesses do more and they could hire more people, and have more jobs and more jobs and this is how you grow the economy.”
Goodnight, and welcome to another edition of Sports Monday, I am Paul Lopez. As we near the end of Women’s Month, we begin tonight’s coverage with highlights from the thirty-third running of the Women’s Cross Country Cycling Classic. Eleven riders lined up at the starting line in San Ignacio. Among them were three Belizeans, including defending champion Kaya Cattouse, four American riders, two Mexicans, a Trinidadian, and a Jamaican rider.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Heading into Central Farm, its Jamaican rider, Lory Sharp, setting the pace. Twenty minutes later, Sharp is still in the lead, followed closely by Trinidadian rider Alexis Ramirez in second place. At this point in the race, Kaya Cattouse is the only Belizean rider keeping up with the main field of lead riders. The other two have fallen behind. In Camalote Village, Sharp has displayed a great deal of endurance and stamina as she continues to lead the charge. LA Sweat’s Elizabeth Stevenson in hot pursuit. These riders have created a gap between themselves and the other riders.They maintained their lead until mile forty, when the chase group caught up with them, led by LA Sweat’s Mia Scarleto.
Mexican rider Julie Aguilar launched an attack just outside of St. Mathews Village. LA Sweat’s Regina Doty immediately rose from her seat in hot pursuit. Well, folks, that was the last the other riders would see of Aguilar and Doty. Here is the main field of riders, two minutes behind the two lead riders. Kaya Cattouse, the only Belizean rider still in the pack, is among this group. Heading into Belize City, it is all Doty and Julin Aguila. With less than half a mile to the finish line, Doty and Aguila turn up the heat for an all-out sprint. And here it is folks, the sprint to the finish line. Regina Doty followed by Julin Aguia.
Regina Doty
Regina Doty, Champion, 33rd Women’s Cross Country
“If you race fearful, you are never going to win.You cant race with fear. I was willing to give it all I have. I attacked to see what she had. I attacked and attacked quickly, even after seventy miles. I know what my body is capable of. I was trying to see if she was strong enough, but she didnt want it and I was there to take it.”
Kaya Cattouse
Kaya Cattouse, LA Sweat Rider
“Going into it, our game plan was to bring it down to the line for me. We quickly realized that the other team’s focus was on me. Our back up plan was to get one of our other stronger pacers on the road and hopefully they could deliver that W. That is exactly what happened today when we realized we couldn’t get away from them for third place, i launched Liz down the road for that third spot. Belizeans wanted a Belizean win but we came for an LA Sweat win and that is exactly what we got today.”
Kaya Cattouse came in sixth place. From cycling, we move into some basketball action. The San Pedro Tiger Sharks took on the Belize City Defenders. The Sharks had something to prove after being defeated by the Defenders the last time they faced off inside the Belize City Civic Center. The San Pedro Tiger Sharks are on a roll. After defeating the number one seed in the BEBL, Benny’s Belize Hurricanes, last week inside the Civic, on Saturday night they went up against the number two seed, the Belize City Defenders. It is safe to say that this is a new Tiger Sharks team we are seeing after also winning their game against the Defenders one hundred and four to seventy points.
The Shark’s number seven, Bobby Athur Williams, played thirty-seven minutes and put up an impressive thirty-three points. That includes three of four from the three-point line and five of eleven two pointers. Williams also banked fourteen of his sixteen free throw attempts. Francis Arana followed behind with eighteen points off the bench, scoring five of his ten two-point attempts and two of his six three-point attempts. He ended the game with eleven assists. Arana was also big on the defensive end, securing five steals for his team on Saturday night. Jihad Wright and Daniel Conorque both finished the game with fifteen points each. What Wright lacked from the arch he made up for with his two-point shots and free throws. Conorque was forty-four percent efficient from the field on Saturday night. We heard from coach Rico Black and Francis Arana following their victory.
Rico Black
Rico Black, Coach, San Pedro Tiger Sharks
“The beginning of the season, it was very difficult to get my players together. We had to transition from San Pedro and come here and we couldn’t get the Civic to work out. So it was very difficult. The opening night you saw we weren’t playing, we weren’t really then we gave our game to the Defenders, the second game. But now that we are working out, odd hours, ten to twelve at nights, but we are making the sacrifice. So we are getting together, the team is believing in themselves. I am letting my bench believe that they can play at this level.”
Francis Arana
Francis Arana, San Pedro Tiger Sharks
“Well as the season goes on we are gradually getting our chemistry together. SO now we are learning to play together much better. And we are seeing the chemistry everytime we come out and put in the work together and it is showing on the court now.”
The Tiger Sharks are now second in the league’s standings. Well folks, that’s all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.
