KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Feb. 11, IWN — Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves on Monday accused Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace of “nastiness” for disclosing the withdrawal of some $1 million from Gonsalves’ mother’s Building & Loan Association account last October.
“… Eustace is interested in nastiness. I almost want to say bad-mindedness but I wouldn’t go there. But certainly, nastiness to drag my 93-year-old mother into this…
“What they want to do, advertise that my mother had over a million dollars in Building & Loan — an old woman from Colonarie?” Gonsalves said.
He further said his mother was in a wheelchair and has Alzheimer’s disease, which causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior.
Eustace spoke of the withdrawal at a press conference on Monday.
“I am reliably informed that funds in excess of EC$1 million, all monies held at Building & Loan in the name of Ms Theresa Francis, mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, were withdrawn in full in the final months of 2012,” he said.
Gonsalves said separately that he did not know that two of his brothers, joint holders of the account with his mother, withdrew the money on Oct. 1.
He said one brother said he withdrew the money after a former BLA director repeatedly advised him to do so.
But Gonsalves, who on Feb. 4 invested $21,000 in BLA on behalf of one of his daughters, said he would urge his brothers to redeposit in the BLA the money withdrawn from their mother’s account.