Today in History: April 4

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – On this day in Bahamian history, former politician Geoffrey Johnstone died at the age of 89.

Johnstone was a politician, lawyer, civil servant, ambassador and church leader.

Johnstone was also a partner in the Higgs & Johnson law firm until his retirement in 1998.

His career in politics began in 1962 when he was elected to represent the eastern district of New Providence in the House of Assembly.

In the next general election of 1967, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Montagu.

Three years later, in February 1970, he was appointed leader of the opposition and served until July 1971.

Fast forward to April 4th, 2013, tragedy strikes in Mayaguana after an emergency evacuation flight turned deadly.

The Minister of Aviation at the time, Glenys Hanna-Martin confirmed that a plane chartered to pick up the ailing individual crashed into a vehicle near the runway, killing three people.

The minister’s report revealed that two vehicles had “Strategically” lined the island’s unlit runway at about 12:30am in order to illuminate the “Usable portion” in preparation for the plane’s landing.

Consequently, the plane crashed into one of the vehicles lighting the runway.

And finally on this day in 2016 was the the massive document leak from a Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonesca – labeled The Panama Papers.

A 2016 European parliament report notes the 11.5 million leaked documents covered nearly 40 years of business undertaken by the company, and showed numerous ways to exploit secretive offshore tax regimes to hide funds and income.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which obtained the documents, listed The Bahamas as the firm’s third most-popular jurisdiction for companies incorporations, behind Panama and the British Virgin Islands.