Promises to keep pressure on criminals
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Prime Minister Bruce Golding says he will no longer be distracted by his critics over his handling of the Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke extradition.
“I won’t be distracted by the extradition issue anymore,” Golding told scores of cheering Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters on Sunday at the party’s North West St James constituency conference in Montego Bay.
Golding, who is also leader of the ruling JLP, argued that the attacks on him were not about the performance of the economy, neither were they about the Government’s drive to reduce crime.
“Instead, they want to know about extradition and Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. But let me make one thing clear, they could issue statements until… and the columnists write their columns and the editors will write their editorials, I am not allowing anything to distract me anymore from the work that I will have to do,” he said.
Golding was making reference to his shocking disclosure in Parliament in early May that he had sanctioned the hiring of US law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips to lobby the United States on extradition matters, contrary to what the public was led to believe in his earlier utterances.
The delay in signing the extradition request for Coke, which was made by the US last August, had strained relations between the two countries.
But after several months of foot dragging and amidts public pressure, Attorney General and Justice Minister Senator Dorothty Lightbourne in May finally gave the authority to proceed on the United States’ extradition request for Coke to answer to charges related to drug-trafficking and gunrunning.
Efforts by police and soldiers to serve an arrest warrant on Coke at his base — a barricaded Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston where Golding is the member of Parliament — cost the lives of more than 70 civilians, as well as a police and a soldier.
Coke, who managed to elude the lawmen, was eventually apprehended on June 22 and flown to New York on June 24 after waiving his right to an extradition hearing in Jamaica. He is currently in lock-up awaiting trial.
Several organisations, including the opposition People’s National Party and the National Democratic Movement had called on prime minister to resign, saying that he had lost the confidence of the Jamaican people.
But Golding, in lashing his critics on Sunday, emphasised that he was “only accountable to the Jamaican people”.
“…So when organistions call for me to resign… and if you were to audit some of their membership, it probably fill one sheet of exercise book,” he said.
He acknowledged, however, that the groups of persons calling for his resignations have their “constituency of interest” which they have every right to pursue.
“They must, however, be a little cautious and a little guarded before pretending to be able to speak for you and people like you,” he told the enthusiastic party supporters.
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