My record is clean, I ain’t thief no vehicle.
This was the response given by Grenada government minister Ron Redhead as he denied any wrongdoing in the sale of a vehicle that was given to him by a businesswoman for use in the June 23, 2022 election campaign in which the National Democratic Congress (NDC) emerged victorious over the New National Party (NNP).
The senior government minister who is the Member of Parliament for the St George North-east constituency was responding to a post on Social Media which accused him of selling a vehicle made available to him in the campaign by the owner of Mt Pure Yolanda McQueen without her knowledge and consent.
According to the island’s Sport and Culture Minister, someone is deliberately “spinning” the issue as part of political mischief making.
He said the aim is to deliberately “tarnish people’s character” as the target of those behind the propaganda is to attack particular and specific individuals in Congress.
“I don’t want to get in a dog fight with who just putting out propaganda and this kind of thing. I won’t entertain it too much but…. this one in particular warrants a response,” he told THE NEW TODAY.
“Yolanda gave me the vehicle out of her kindness – I didn’t ask her for a vehicle – she gave it to me. That is really the truth about it and she could say that – I ain’t have to worry too much about that because she called me to put out a joint statement between myself and her,” he said.
Minister Redhead disclosed that the vehicle was sold but McQueen was informed about it based on the circumstances.
He said: “It’s not a case here she doesn’t know. What happened is that the person who I sold the vehicle for, he wants the vehicle transferred on his name. I told him all of that in terms of who the person is and we will get it organised.
“The last few days he was calling me and he could not get me – I was a bit busy and he called Yolanda and I made him aware of all of that (ownership title). I will be sorting that out completely next week.
“Yolanda and I just spoke about it earlier on today (Sunday) so I could safely say it’s not a case where the police (was called in) – that’s not true,” he said.
“I end up losing in the deal and I told Yolanda I will take the loss because she gave me the van free of charge during the campaign and I never had to pay anything for it …. and I appreciated that so I said that I could take the loss of $8000.00
“So the vehicle was sold, I had to recuperate the loss. The van has serious mechanical problems. I spent almost $11, 000.00 to get the van working and then the van shut down on me.
“For months now the van parked up behind the MP office. That’s the reality and I told her that I will have to sell it to get it off my hand to recoup my money and then we will have the transaction and Mr (name of purchaser of the vehicle) just went ahead and called her. That is all that happened.
“I personally was not driving Yolanda’s van. Yolanda’s van was for the team members to go to and fro from different points (in the constituency) – not for me.
According to Minister Redhead, he believes that there are some persons within the NDC itself who are involved in spreading the propaganda about the sale of the vehicle and doing nothing but “damage to the party.”
When contacted McQueen declined to comment on the issue as well as the claims being made by the senior government minister that she had reached an agreement with him to issue a joint statement to clear the air on the matter.
The businesswoman who is a member of the Board of Directors of the state-owned Grenada Development Bank (GDB) was also named in another recent Social Media posting as one who was not happy with an alleged loan of EC$2.3 million given to Minister of Mobilisation Implementation and Transformation, Andy Williams for his private sector business.
The minister has denied the allegation, saying that the loan was for only EC$600, 000.00 and that the discussions on the loan started under the previous NNP regime and that he has enough assets to cover the money that he borrowed from the bank.
McQueen was unsuccessful in getting the nod about ten months ago from a Congress panel that interviewed potential candidates for the rural St Andrew South-east constituency for the general election with the decision made to give the assignment to the current Minister of Education, David Andrew.