Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts said yesterday
"we will see hell freeze and the second coming" before Fort Charlotte MP Dr. Andre Rollins blackmails the government.
Roberts said Rollins' "egomaniacal and selfish genotype" prevents him from "reasonable and balanced behavior and being a team player".
"Rollins must put up or shut up over these idle threats and claims of disrespect by the prime minister and acts of malfeasance by others," the chairman said in a statement.
"If Rollins has information and proof of anything, lay the same on the table or shut the hell up and go sit down.
"He was sent to Parliament to do the people's business, but instead he strokes his oversized ego by repeatedly hustling the media for headlines.
"These salacious outbursts and self-serving antics do not serve the public's interest, but denigrate the nobility of public service and the parliamentary process to spectacles for entertainment."
Roberts' comments were in reference to Rollins' recent threat that if his friend Renward Wells, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Works, is fired over the signing of a controversial letter of intent (LOI) for a $600 million waste-to-energy plant, he (Rollins) would expose who else needs to be fired.
Rollins, who has made headlines for his strong criticisms of the government and Prime Minister Perry Christie, said there is "more than meets the eye" when it comes to the "LOI affair".
"If Renward Wells needs to be fired, he is not the only one, and I have a problem with you trying to scapegoat my friend," Rollins told NB12.
"So when I say that I believe we were used as tokens, I was also referencing that matter."
Rollins, in a statement responding to Roberts yesterday, criticized the prime minister's "refusal" to address the matter.
Rollins said no member of the PLP deserves the "perception of impropriety hanging over their head due to the refusal of the prime minister to address this controversial matter" two months after it made headlines.
He said addressing the matter would be consistent of a government committed to the "practice of good governance".
"The chairman's statement would seem to suggest that a response from the prime minister is forthcoming," Rollins said.
"The country would be well served by a response from its leader."
Wells, the member for Bamboo Town, signed the document with Stellar Energy Bahamas Limited on July 4, 2014.
Stellar is seeking to build the plant at the New Providence landfill.
The company would cover the cost of the project.
Nine weeks ago, Prime Minister Perry Christie asked Wells to resign amid reports that he signed the LOI without Cabinet approval.
But Wells has not resigned and Christie has not fired him.
Christie said on August 7 he would make a final determination after he completes an investigation.
In his statement, Roberts said if the Fort Charlotte MP is dissatisfied with the leadership of the PLP, "he can freely leave just as he freely joined the organization".
He said Rollins existed on the "political fringes before the PLP brought him in from the cold and gave him political life and a public platform".
Roberts said that platform was supposed to be used to advance the people of Fort Charlotte, but Rollins has done otherwise.
"He squandered his opportunity at public service by abandoning the people who sent him to Parliament, attacking the leader of the country and the party and managing to get fired from the post of Gaming Board chairman," Roberts said.
"In addition to abandoning his constituents, his parliamentary pronouncements are out of step with the wishes of the people, who sent him there to represent their interests.
"This is dereliction of duty of the first order."
Outside the Churchill Building, Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis called Rollins' threat "hollow".
He said if Rollins had any information he would have revealed it by now.

Challenge to name names
Regarding Wells' fate, Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis and Democratic National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney have repeatedly called on Christie to fire Wells.
When contacted for comment yesterday, Minnis challenged Rollins to name who authorized the signing of the LOI, regardless of whether Wells is fired.
Minnis said the Bahamian people want "honesty and transparency" and they deserve to know the truth.
"If there were any forms of illegality or corruption, or anything that would have been done, the Bahamian people have a right to know," Minnis said.
"And I think they would be asking for whoever may know what went on to speak up, Rollins or whoever else."
Minnis questioned if Christie has not fired Wells because he can expose the LOI matter.
"The prime minister still has not done what he should do, dismiss Wells, especially after asking him to resign," he said.
"It is quite evident Rollins knows a lot more and the Bahamian people want to know.
"What Rollins is saying points out even more how important it is that we have transparency."
Minnis renewed his call for the government to enact the Freedom of Information Act.
The Ingraham administration tabled the FOIA in Parliament in October 2011.
A revamped version was passed in the Senate in February 2012.
However, an enforcement date was never set.
Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald has said the act needs over 100 amendments and it could take up to two years to table a revised bill..
Minnis said that if the FOIA was in place the Bahamian people would already know all the details regarding the LOI.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian