Democratic Labour Party leader Ralph Thorne has denounced the government’s decision to grant land to the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank), calling for an investigation into the 30-year-old multilateral bank’s operations.Thorne, speaking at a press conference surrounded by his party’s candidates, first welcomed the bank’s presence in Barbados but vehemently opposed the terms of the agreement, arguing that the land at Jemmotts Lane, on the site of the old general hospital, could have been better utilised for public facilities like hospitals or schools.He declared he knew very little about the institution which has been granted the land without charge to develop the bank’s only branch outside of the African continent as a headquarters for its CARICOM operations, a trade centre and a hotel.“Let us undertake, on behalf of the people of Barbados, to do what the Government of Barbados has not done. Let us undertake to do our own investigation as to the credibility and worth of this bank. Let us undertake to do that,” Thorne suggested.“Personally, I wish them (the bank) well. It is just that I don’t think they should have gotten this thing free. I wish them well; have nothing against them. I know very little about them; but on principle, we in this party cannot support this transaction. As I said earlier, a hospital, school…oh, that would have been noble. We would have loved that. We would have loved an extension to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital; and with the clinics on the other side of the road, this whole area could have become a nice domain and a beachfront for therapeutic rehabilitation; and we have given it away to a company that intends to make money,” Thorne complained.