Organizer Donna St. Hill and the Nigerian Student Saga in Barbados
BU continues to be intrigued by the Nigerian Saga playing out in Barbados. We reserve the right to refer to it as the Nigerian Scam at a future time. How so many things can go wrong with a transaction said to be well funded boggles the minds of sensible onlookers.
BU asked Donna St. Hill to answer three simple questions on behalf of the BU family to start the ball rolling – 1) . Please advise the nature of the relationship with you and Sharon Brathwaite and how it has affected the transaction. 2). Please advise why the BCC is not ready to admit the students given the preplanning and 3). Please advise the contingent arrangement with Renee Coppin at Infinity when the arrival of the students had to be delayed. What is the current status of that arrangement. BU’s communication to organiser of the Nigerian Student visit remains unanswered.
The following advice was offered to Barbadians by a Trinidadian contractor allegedly burnt by Donna St. Hill.
This is just a continuation of the confusion and betrayal of the Nigerian officials, this said group left Trinidad with outstanding bills pending to be paid. The transport company has been left with a bill and everyone pointing fingers. But for some reason all the fingers is being pointed back to Donna St.Hill… A word of suggestion anyone doing business pertaining to this group need to collect payments IN ADVANCE. The students are innocent in this whole situation as these officials has be entrusted with funds to ensure these students are taken care of and all expenses are covered. So where has the money disappeared to? Where is the accountability? What needs to happen for the Nigerian officials to fix this?…
…David, my company supplied all the bus shuttle for this group from the airport to the hotel and the daily shuttle from the hotel to the school and back. I received one payment. They arrived in Trinidad on Dec 1st 2014 and payment was made on Dec 11th 2014 to cover the first 2 to 3 days and after that I kept being promised another payment is on it’s way. My company was subcontracted by the person that was awarded the contract, however I have stand the risk to supply the service and pay all drivers. Now that they left I have been asking my contact and he keep saying talks is on with Donna to have the payments made, I don’t know what the talks is about if a service was provided, payments should be made. My staff was professional and on time and more than accommodating for the students. So it is quit unfair now for me to have to resort to highlighting this matter in an attempt to collect for the outstanding invoices. The person that contract me claims he submitted a letter to the Nigerian High Commissioner requesting that they cover the outstanding invoices, but that again referred back to Donna St.Hill as it was stated he received the funding for the said venture and was responsible to handle such matters.
Barbados Underground 
Who is Sharon Brathwaite? Does she really exists? Or is she a fictitious character?
LikeLike
Have you read her apology and account in the latest the Barbados Today ?
Somebody or bodies will be very rich at the end of this exercise? And if the funds runs out before the end of the exercise, as it most likely will, then the Government and People of Barbados will be that much poorer.
What a tangle web. I hope that each and every Barbadian is following this sage with their eyes and brain, and not just their guts and hearts.
But as the gentleman said….”We reserve the right to refer to it as the Nigerian Scam at a future time.”
LikeLike
When I heard the word students I pictured 16 to 20 year olds getting ready to start a career like a lot do at that age in Canada. But the picture in today of the students shows a bunch of middle aged men standing around . Now I am not saying you cant teach an old dog new tricks but something is totally odd about that picture.
LikeLike
How is it possible for our Immigration Department to have issued 90+ visas and there is no inter-department communication with ministries to ensure proactive action / responses take place?
LikeLiked by 1 person
@ David
What are you talking about…? Is this not a tourist place? Did they even NEED visas?
shiite man….we would issue a visa to a man-goose if it waved some US$…. and these people waved $10m…
@ Lawson
LOL
Students shiite…. those bald-head, big-bellied ruffians?
wuh boss, dem fellows look older than Pieceuhderock and even Bushie….
…only bout here…
LikeLiked by 2 people
no wonder they are finding it tough for men to fight book haram …they are all on course
LikeLike
@ Bushie
Man you right ya…… ya got me wondering now….last time I saw a BIG able brute like ee did in D Mongoose Gang rund Eric Gairy time….Looka is time for mo investigations Donna wha gine on hay sisterin?… if he is a student gine BCC….I just pass fa Cawmere.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLike
@ old onion bags January 16, 2015 at 8:10 AM #
Bushie is right on the ball. Students what. Those big guts hardback men really come to Barbados to study hospitality and agriculture? Bajans are so easily fooled! They don’t even make good-looking genetic stock to improve the in-breeding bloodline of the local black population.
This is just another ‘people smuggling’ scam that has gone awry. It’s now very, very difficult to smuggle people to Europe and the UK. So why not revive the Atlantic trade.
LikeLike
@ Miller
Cahblima…..and to think I did backing this mellifluous farce,unknowingly on the side of brotherhood…
LikeLike
Once people land in a country they can claim refugee status, in Canada Nigerians claimed it often, a lot for being unsafe because they were gay. I just cant believe these fellows have survived all their lives with no jobs .From my personal expierence they seem more
like a group of taxi men at the dock at bridgetown
LikeLike
I am astonished that it has taken one photo to alert the masses. Colonel Buggy, Bush Tea and my goodself warned you guys about this scam from very early on.
They look like if they are doing a dress rehersal scene for “The Godfather-1,2 and 3”.
This pantomine could only happen in Barbados and is no laughing matter!
LikeLike
Those are some real tough, hard, looking men.
LikeLike
I believe that Ms. St. Hill has the interest of Barbados at heart. She could be in Africa living it up but instead she opted to drive opportunities for UWI, BCC and Barbados in general. See her brief presentation in Aug 2014 at the Barbados Network Consultation held in Barbados –
LikeLike
The following was received via email:
LikeLike
$43US per night. Does that include meals and laundry?
LikeLike
This could be like Anderson Cooper’s here is the photo right a caption for it
So I called the front desk and said I had a leak in the sink…and the woman said that’s okay
Where dos blood diamonds at?
No bush meat !!! I told you this place was 3rd world
LikeLike
@millertheanunnaki January 16, 2015 at 8:29 AM “They don’t even make good-looking genetic stock to improve the in-breeding bloodline of the local black population.”
I disagree with you. I think that these are strong looking, good looking men…but alas I am out of the reproductive business…and anyway if you think that black Barbadians are in-bred then you should look into the genetics of white Bajans (a much smaller population) and Indic Bajans (an even smaller population).
I think that it would be in the long term interest of all Bajans to to add some Nigerian to the genetic mix…but alas I cannot no longer help.
I hope though that the men are getting some “comforts”
LikeLike
So Donna St Hill has followed Sharon Brathwaite and spilled her guts to the Barbados Today?
When thieves and rogues fall out !
Lets wait and see how this switch from Casa Grande to the Infinity Hotel soon ,will pan out.
A boy on the block told me that the Prime Minister should have appointed Michael Carrington as the Nigerian Overseer, instead of Dr Murray. He would have been able to pay back his client,and still have some change in his pocket, as this Delta thing , seems to be a free -for- all ATM.
LikeLike
BU’s question to Donna St.Hill is when will she pay debts owed to the Trinis.
LikeLike
A half million allegedly ‘gone missing’? Where is the DPP?
LikeLike
Crusoe January 16, 2015 at 4:26 PM #
A half million allegedly ‘gone missing’? Where is the DPP?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
You mean that we have put the wrong people in jail,ah mean in Casa Grande?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Looking at that photo, no wonder one of the main complaints about Casa Granda was not getting enough food?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Finally a SCAM that’s against NIGERIANS, good going Barbados, as it’s normally the Nigerians doing the SCAMMING.
LikeLike
Pardon me for asking but what is the story here? All I am getting is the story about the students not being happy with their accommodations. I read they are in B’dos to study for 9 months under a Nigerian program. From article and comments there is something up with Donna St-Hill and parties and some scam.
LikeLike
If we believe that untold damage has been done to our tourism industry because of the goings on at the Casa Grande,wait until these 90 Nigerians are let loose soon, in the heart of the south coast tourist belt ,at the Infinity Hotel. We at present ,cannot control our mild home grown scammers , thieves and drug pushers along that strip.
LikeLike
I have had a chance to reflect on the above photo as published in yesterday’s newspaper. The choice of photo is strangely odd. What was the motivation of the editor to allow such a gross and caricatured photo of those four Nigerian men to be published? Surely they could have found a more sympathetic image. Too late the damage has been done.
Personally, I have serious doubts concerning this “educational” trip. However, I am furious with this highly charged and racially provocative image. I am shock that such an image should have stemmed from a Bajan journal.
LikeLike
Trust the Nation newspaper to use the front page of it’s largest circulated paper Sunday Sun to tell the world that Barbados is “quarantining” African students at a military headquarters .
As usual,trying to be sensational and getting the story completely wrong but do the editors at the Nation newspaper care about responsible journalism or pushing controversy to make profits ?
You tell me.
The lack of responsible journalism by the Nation has been once again exposed for all to see.
LikeLike
@Exclaimer January 16, 2015 at 8:56 PM “Personally, I have serious doubts concerning this “educational” trip. However, I am furious with this highly charged and racially provocative image.”
I don’t think that the photograph of the 4 Nigerian men is highly charged or racially provocative. The young man on the left in the sleeveless pink shirt, and the young man in the white shirt and dark glasses could be any Bajan son, and the two older fellows with the big bellies could be any middle aged Bajan husband.
Aren’t Bajans the second most obese people in the Western world after our friends the Americans?
So we really can’t give obese Nigerians any talk.
LikeLike
I’ve read the Barbados Today story entitled “I’m Sorry” and noted that Sharon Brathwaite is described as “an esthetician, event planner and decorator by profession.”
Why did Donna St. Hill hire an thetician, event planner and decorator to manage this program when there are international educational exchange professionals in Barbados?
And why did she promise to pay the Trinidadian coordinator $10,000 USD per month. Doesn’t she realize that that fee is about double the going rate for professional international exchange coordinators? And was she paying Sharon Brathwaite esthetician, event planner and decorator the same $10,000 USD per month ($242,400 BDS per year). And if so why?
What is the going rate for estheticians, event planners and decorators in Barbados? As a rule are estheticians, event planners and decorators paid more than the principals of the University of the West Indies, the Barbados Community College and principals of any secondary or primary school, public or private in Barbados?
And exactly what real, real work were these people doing for these huge sums of money?
LikeLike
I’ve read the Barbados Today story “Move On” and I am surprised at this statement attributed to Dona St. Hill “I had letters coming to my hotel WITH MY ROOM NUMBER ON IT, which could only have come from certain places,” said St Hill, who described the recent happenings as “slightly disturbing”.
I would say to Donna that since the Delta State program in Barbados had run into problems and was making the front pages in a negative way…you should have been spending very little time in your hotel room, as a matter of fact you should not even have been sleeping…you should have been at Casa Grande 24-7 SERVING your students and resolving the problems…you are the boss. It is always the boss’ duty to take the heat.
LikeLike
It is always the boss’ duty to take the heat.
So which boss(es) do we think will take the heat for not being aware we were running out of natural gas thereby jeopardizing the island’s reputation as a tourist destination just as this season tourism finally starts to show a few feeble signs of coming back to life? Mr No-one Atall or perhaps Ms Nobody, would be my bets.
Gas woes from bad to worse
WITH THE NATURAL GAS shortage showing no signs of easing, some restaurateurs and hoteliers on the South Coast are set to install alternative sources of power.
Just after midday yesterday several restaurants on the South and West Coast complained that their natural gas supply was completely gone. A few others who got a reduced capacity said they were able to prepare some meals, but at a diminished capacity.
Some hotels that utilise the gas supply to power some of their equipment including dryers, air conditioning units and water heaters were forced to improvise to fulfil obligations to their guests.
Chiryl Newman, owner of Champers Restaurant, said she would be looking to see how soon a bottled gas system could be set up. Champers had been experiencing problems for about a week, but on Thursday Newman said the supply was very low and things got worse yesterday. (LK)
LikeLike
Simple Simon January 16, 2015 at 11:08 PM #: “…The young man on the left in the sleeveless pink shirt, and the young man in the white shirt and dark glasses could be any Bajan son, and the two older fellows with the big bellies could be any middle aged Bajan husband…”
I believe that the man on the right is indeed a Barbadian lawyer (from similar pictures/captions in the daily newspapers).
LikeLike
@ Green Monkey, I am surprised that the top restaurants have not already had a backup system in place. A bottle gas system with a switch-over or a stove or two fulltime bottle gas.
For one of the three critical things (fuel, raw materials and wages) for a restaurant (can always work by lamp and use candlelight and lamp in the main area), to be exposed thus, is surprising.
But that does not negate the issues and responsibilities of the natural gas supply chain.
LikeLike
Minister Donville Inniss has to take the heat because the NPC which falls under hisresponsibility would have know demand was placing pressure on capacity since sat year. BU believes this is another case of a visionless and cash trapped government.
LikeLike
I cant help it maybe it is because some of my kids are still in school,but the word student makes me think of young people, I am sure two of those guys are going to retire before me. The picture wasn’t the most flattering. I remember one time a car accident where one cop car ran into the back of another going to a call. The newspaper photographer showed up and was taking shots but I could see he was trying to make look like they were random but he was trying to get to a certain spot. The next day , front page of the newspaper ,picture of police crash with dunkin donut shop in background
LikeLike
@ Green Monkey
Re : Natural Gas Woes//…….•See more at: http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/62209/gas-woes-bad-worse#sthash.glocWmQS.dpuf
Did not the Sleepin Giant inform he had made plans to have a direct pipe line coming from T&T to Bim?……
What I find most amusing , is this SHORTAGE all a sudden poppin up….As far as Adam was a lad ….Bdos always had an ample supply of NG….The well up Turner’s Hall was gushing NG now for years and last survey it was said to be able to outlast this coral formation…but now since D T&T agreement…um running out…..think D Nigerians one gine B we only problem…
LikeLike
@Old Onion Bags
Cant you read Sir? This matter did not just pop up, your boy (Donville) dropped the ball. This issue was known to management since last year. They needed to bring more wells online.
LikeLike
Last year???……where is the sense of relativity?….we talking about NG here…..Turner’s Hall well is said to be inexpendable.. if it did running out signs would have been seen ova 10 years spate not last year….I smell a rat….NG pipeleine gine mean HIGHER rate for we poor Bajans…..so here comes justification.
LikeLike
Nothing to do with running out, the NPC and BNOC needed to plan better as far as bringing gas supply online. IF the government has no money however…
LikeLike
Simple Simon January 16, 2015 at 11:08 PM #
………. The young man on the left in the sleeveless pink shirt, and the young man in the white shirt and dark glasses could be any Bajan son, and the two older fellows with the big bellies could be any middle aged Bajan husband.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Certainly must agree with you. The faces and physiques certaintly match
those of Bajans so much, that I was able to associate their features with known Bajans.
LikeLike
Simple Simon January 16, 2015 at 11:54 PM #
…………you are the boss. It is always the boss’ duty to take the heat.
……………………………………………………………………………
Perhaps Donna has her eyes set on becoming Prime Minister of Barbados.
LikeLike
Alas our current PM does not take any heat..remember the giant is sleepy or asleep.
LikeLike
Since Donville is the Minister responsible for Energy etc. I will have a word with him when I see him…he lives in my constituency.
It is beyond embarrassing that just when the hotels should be selling hot meals and earning foreign exchange they are out of gas. I am only a lowly house non-wife and I’ve never run out of gas. I can’t happen as long as I am managing my household. But then again I never ever sleep on the job.
LOLL!!!
Unlike some people that we have put in positions of authority.
And yes indeedy hotels should have backup electric stoves or gas stoves with bottles in place. A decent 4 to 6 burner gas stove still costs under $1,500, and 200 pounds of bottle gas less than $400
LikeLike
The sun ALWAYS (also) rises. Solar powered electric stoves.
Simplistic reasoning.
LikeLike
One of the big bellied men in the photograph, the one with the second smallest of bellies it our resident Douglas Trotman Attorney at Law
The photographer while understandably seeking to root the picture on the controversial and charismatic Douglas, recent independent runner for St Philip, alas caught a number of my brethren from Nigeria who are no strangers to the kitchen
Trotty was really the focus of the shot but as fate would have it the half centenarians plus ten in the group gravitated to Trotty, probably as big bellied men dont like standing next to Adonis-like specimens
LikeLike
I do not usually post on BU, but this has indeed been a saga. Having read both interviews, it is my opinion that the one with Sharon Brathwaite seems more plausible. Today’s interview in Barbados Today with DSH has so many inconsistencies to me, including:. (1) I quote, ” we were looking for a legacy project to cap off his two terms”. But was not this rehabilitation project started since 2009 by Pres Yar’Adua and the amnesty programme? So the students that were in Trinidad in 2012 and 2013, what were they under? (2)”so i have to know what is going on and i have to approve spending”. So by admission, you cannot now come and claim you did not know what was going on? You either approved spending or not and don’t tell us you approved spending without invoices or receipts or contracts! (3) “we are trying to find out” that was in response to the question on what happened to the money. So if you sign off on all the monies, you should know where the money went, no? And don’t get me started on the explanation re the accommodation!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why is it that ambulance chasers are never slim
LikeLike
@David (BU). Please add to your questions (which may never be answered) the issues of the firing of the Trinidad project manager and the alledged doubling of quotations for submission.
LikeLike
Here is a submission by Donna St. Hill posted in May, 2013 by Donna St. Hill.
LikeLike
Oh my gosh, you people are so clever! You say when something goes amiss the leader must take the heat. You further state that Donville is the leader in this instance so he is the one to take the heat. BUT my dear friends, if there is no gas it goes to reason that there will be no heat. So, your reasoning means that Donville has no heat to take. Isn’t that exactly what is happening with ALL these ministers of government including The Exhaulted One? Not one of them has been called to account for their numerous failures unless wrecking the economy can be considered a success.
LikeLike
FearPlay January 18, 2015 at 1:56 PM #: “…if there is no gas it goes to reason that there will be no heat…”
Presumably the consequence of our failure to properly develop solar energy…
LikeLike
Note the front page article in the Sunday Sun today. Minister Darcy Boyce points to ‘wells are not yielding. That is a feature of old wells’. Further in the article Sanka Price quoted from a NPC report: Ít noted the sustained supply of natural gas to the National Petroleum Corporation could only be guaranteed on the basis of the economic production of oil.
Draw your conclusions from the conflicting positions.
LikeLike
David January 18, 2015 at 2:15 PM #: “…Draw your conclusions from the conflicting positions.”
These appear to be complementary…
LikeLike
@Alien
The point is that the shortage should have been anticipated because the government has relaxed its oil exploration because of a lack of funds?. No drilling for oil no natural gas.
LikeLike
@ David [BU]
Say I was a hotelier who built my hotel and installed all of the gas works so that my internal kitchen plant would integrate with, and run on de NPC natural gas, being that I was unable to get gas for the last couple weeks, and given that my conversion to alternative gas for my stoves etc will incur significant expenditure, would I be able to sue government, to wit, the National Petroleum Corporation for “specific performance of contract”?
Could my lawyer, being that he is one of them that is honest, the high percent that Tariq Khan talking bout, could this epitome of luminary legal mind add on loss of income because my (imaginary) guests, cant get no hot food cook at my internal restaurant and can I claim for expenses, to wit, paying staff etc?
I was just wondering bout dese tings, killing time, befo’ I lef fuh de airport tuh pick up de madam who coming back from Englant tonite….
LikeLike
@PUDRYR
We would have to have sight of the customer TOCs. It was not an act of God which is the standard force majeure clause in the TOC.
LikeLike
LikeLike
The Fair Trading Commission needs to have a look at this blatant piece of discriminatory advertisement.
There is a big difference between a Nigerian Cook , and a person who cooks Nigerian foods.
Also in todays Sunday Sun we read of protest by some, over an advert by LIME, featuring a phone in the back pocket of a lady wearing tightly fitting jeans over a well rounded bottom. This is deemed sexist.
But later in the day we hear Larry Mayers on CBC promoting a night club in Cavans Lane,with the offer that women who enter before a certain time will have their admission fee slashed by half. Some places offer free drink to women . Is this not sexist?
LikeLike
What a tangled web we weave.Darcy Boyce has indicated, in a ‘definite maybe’ way, that we will be importing natural gas. Now pray tell me where are we going to get this supply of Natural Gas from, and who will be the importers. More than likely the gas will be coming in from T&T , Via Massy, who we have seen in either todays or yesterdays newspapers advertising for privately owned trucks to distribute bottled gas. Our Bajan leaders may not have any balls, but the Trinis appear to be well equipped with Crystal Balls, ….or inside information.
Another step down the gradient.
LikeLike
Buggy its only sexist if the hot chicks are getting free drinks if the beefaloes are also getting it no problem. I bet you could get guys to chip in and pay for those free drinks an admission fee if you will just to get them to loosen up.
LikeLike
Richest 1% to own more than rest of world, Oxfam says
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30875633
LikeLike
Extracted from Sandra Husband’s FB page.
January 11 at 7:33pm · Edited ·
I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW HORRIBLY EMBARRASSED I FEEL
This is not to put us down but this Nigerian situation has gone to ridiculous and we seem intent on making it worse. Here are my questions? How do you take 10m from someone, 1m goes missing and you did not notice it, and what happened to the other 9m? Was BCC paid then and how come there is no preparation for students who have paid money? If you enter a country on a work permit or a student visa, immigration has to receive and review the documentation showing that they have applied and been accepted at a college before they can enter the country, how come the college is behaving as if it is now receiving applications? How could you call police and defence force for an argument, this is not a police state. Why would the gov’t invite the media to be present when health officials come to deal with a scabies case to further embarrass our guests? And now you are seeking to deport seven of the students four of whom were vocal in defending their group and rightly so? I would hate to accept the opinion which is now circulating, that if these were white students from New Zealand, this matter would have been arranged and handled differently. Not my Barbados.
LikeLike
@FearPlay January 18, 2015 at 1:56 PM “The Exhaulted One?”
I read this quickly and my eyes saw “The Exhumed One” and my mind started to run away with me and to wonder if he isn’t the Exhumed One in truth, because he is always a silent a duppy.
LikeLike
@Sandra Husbands…January 11 at 7:33pm · Edited. “I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW HORRIBLY EMBARRASSED I FEEL…This is not to put us down but this Nigerian situation has gone to ridiculous and we seem intent on making it worse…I would hate to accept the opinion which is now circulating, that if these were white students from New Zealand, this matter would have been arranged and handled differently. Not my Barbados.
Yes, sadly OUR Barbados.
LikeLike
And reported in today’s Nation the police was once again called in yesterday, to a dispute involving Mrs Ram and one of the visiting Nigerian officials.
LikeLike
OHHHHH???……I thought she had an Ad in one of the locals for some Nigerians Cooks to work wid her thru Furniture Ltd?
Yeah David posted it above>>>>> January 18, 2015 at 5:52 PM #
LikeLike
One thing for sure, missing millions or not, you will never see any reports of theft or fraud made to the Barbados Police.
LikeLike
Interested in St Lawrence Gap
http://www.nairaland.com/974856/nigerian-barbados
LikeLike
A visiting Polo team from Kenya is scheduled to play on Lion Castle Polo Grounds tommorrow . I wonder if the team is staying at Casa Granda.
LikeLike
Very impressive.
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/01/12/spc-ones-to-watch-architecture-b.cnn
LikeLike
@ Hants,
Excellent video. I have just watched an amazing and hard-hitting video featuring the great Angelique Kidjo. This feisty woman has a lot to say.
LikeLike
Here is the link
LikeLike
Douglas Trotman is the guy in the picture wearing glasses. The comments of most of the poster who I presume are black shows self hate.
LikeLike
http://www.bajanreporter.com/2015/01/nigerian-deputy-governor-refutes-any-funds-are-missing-plus-no-affairs-with-any-barbadians/
LikeLike
LikeLike
LikeLike
According to today’s afternoon news the students have been summoned home by the Delta State Governor (or sent home by the Barbados Government) what a debacle! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMCgbWpIsv0#t=23
LikeLike