I am just trying to get back to work – Samuel

Businessman Leon “Bigger Biggs” Samuel says he is just trying to get back to work.

During a press conference held on Wednesday at the Methodist Church Hall in Kingstown, Samuel told SEARCHLIGHT that financially, he is barely getting by, since he lost permission to operate his mining business at Rabacca.{{more}}

Samuel said that it is through the kindness of others that he is able to get by, but he is optimistic that things would turn around.

“Persons have been real good to me. Persons have been helping me out here and there. There are persons who make sure I get some food when the week is done… and I would pick up a little bits and ends to pay the bills, like water bill and light bill and so forth.”

Samuel, who spoke at the end of the press conference, allowing his technical advisors to speak and field questions, said that he was bothered that he was not able to send his children, one boy and twin girls, off to further their education.

“The boy, he has 11 subjects and is a graduate of the Community College. The girls are… also graduates of the Community College and just waiting to go off to university, all three of them, but at this time, because of the situation I am in, I cannot do it.

“And to see that I made the provision early in life to educate them, and I did it as a single parent; they should have been in a university, but right now they are suffering because of the situation….”

Samuel started mining at Rabacca in 2008, but stopped in 2011 when his licence was revoked. Prior to beginning his mining operations, the businessman operated a block making business and farmed bananas simultaneously since 1988, two years after leaving secondary school.

“Then is when I realized that the banana start to get shaky, so I diverted into construction. I became a builder in the process,” he told SEARCHLIGHT.

“I am a businessman, first and foremost. All I want to do is to see this matter resolved and to go back to work and getting people employed. I am a person who believes in employment.

“All I want to do is to be a businessman, and to continue to be a businessman.”(JJ)