The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

GOVERNOR General Sir Cornelius A Smith swore in Clayton Fernander yesterday as Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

DCP Fernander joins Deputy Commissioner Loretta Mackey in that role.

His promotion comes more than two years after he and several other senior officers were controversially ordered to take vacation leave and were then given assignments at government ministries that they thought were beneath their roles and experience.

A significant player in the fight against serious crime for years, DCP Fernander was shot multiple times in his arm and upper body in 2013 when two masked, armed men confronted him outside his home. He had surgery after the incident, which left him recovering in a Florida hospital.

During a swearing-in ceremony yesterday, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said: “Listening to the oath, many persons wouldn’t know how true those words are from Deputy Commissioner Fernander. You might never know that I represented the young man who shot him, and questioned him in court. And yet he would have sought me out and taken counsel. He is a man who truly understands the roles that we all play in this land and so it’s most appropriate for the rank that he has now ascended to.

“My brother you come to a higher rank to assist the Commissioner at a time that we see what is happening in this country and much weight is upon you all in this festive season. While we sleep, you all work.”

Mr Munroe represented DCP Fernander and other senior officers after they were sent on leave in 2019. When his leave ended, DCP Fernander was assigned to the Ministry of Health. He and the other officers did not physically show up to their assigned ministries, saying the posts did not require that.

DCP Fernander and two other senior officers were returned to the frontlines of the force after the general election.

In an interview in October on the Royal Bahamas Police Force programme “COP Talk”, DCP Fernander said his time away from the frontlines was not easy.

“Why do I say it was not easy? I still was in possession of our police radios then and I tuned in, especially late nights,” he said.

“I listened to what was going on out there. I was lying in my bed with my wife and the radio set was on, this was after midnight, and there was a shooting, I think it was a murder somewhere, and I found myself getting up putting on my clothes.”

He said he hoped the forced leave never happens to another officer.

“I pray to God that what has happened to myself, ACP Strachan, and ACP Deleveaux, I pray to God that it never happens to none of my colleagues—the disrespect. I pray to God that it never, never happens, but I have put it away. I have put it onto God’s hand—leave (it) with Him. I’m here now to continue this fight.”

Two other senior officers have also risen in the ranks.

Yesterday, Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle tweeted congratulations to Bernard Bonamy and Dellareece Ferguson for their appointments as Assistant Commissioners of Police.

Commissioner Rolle said ACP Bonamy will have remit for Family Island operations, and ACP Ferguson will have remit for human resources and training.