MP’s office torched
SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Tension in the troubled People’s National Party (PNP) St Elizabeth North Eastern constituency organisation went up a notch yesterday after a fire believed to have been started by arsonists damaged the constituency office here.
“We suspect it is an act of arson, based on the evidence,” head of the St Elizabeth Fire Department, Senior Deputy Superintendent Conroy Ghans told the Jamaica Observer.
The Santa Cruz Fire Station responded to a call from the Santa Cruz police (located just across the road) at about 2:00 am yesterday morning and put out the blaze which damaged internal fittings, as well as computers, a television set, and furnishings as well as documents. Preliminary estimates place the damage at $1 million.
Member of Parliament Raymond Pryce, who has been displaced as the likely PNP candidate for the next parliamentary elections, in favour of businessman Evon Redman, who received the support of a majority of delegates at a ratification exercise late last month, and chairman of the PNP’s Region Five Mikael Phillips were among those expressing outrage yesterday.
Ghans said the fire started at the rear (away from public view) of the constituency office which is made of recycled metal containers.
The fire chief said “remains of what appears to be tyres” at the rear of the constituency office suggested that was the material used along with “propellants, possibly gasoline” to start the fire. He suggested that the arsonists may have “made a trail (of fuel) away from the tyres” before starting the blaze.
Ghans said the blaze shot through metal louvre blade windows which had been “prised open” as well as possibly through entrances to the roof to damage a restroom as well as the internal fittings.
Pryce described the fire as an “attack” on the PNP’s St Elizabeth North Eastern constituency organisation. He said damage to documents including records pertaining to the welfare of constituents seeking help in various ways, was particularly painful.
“This shows some people harbour the view that their destructive ways will hamper the constructive approach towards development in the constituency,” the MP said.
He referred the Jamaica Observer to social media postings as evidence of hostility towards him, his supporters, and his political career.
However, Redman who was attending a PNP retreat in St Ann to develop strategies for parliamentary elections, which are expected soon, distanced himself and his supporters from the incident.
“What would we gain from such an action?” he asked. “I am striving to unite the constituency, what has happened here can only lead to further divisions,” he added.
Redman urged the police to conduct a thorough investigation and do all in their power to find out “what could have caused this most unfortunate incident”.
Phillips, who was also in St Ann for the retreat, cautioned Comrades to avoid jumping to conclusions. “Let us allow the police to do their work,” he said.
Police area chief, Superintendent Lanford Salmon pledged a thorough investigation and said investigators were keeping their options open.
“At this time, the investigation is wide open,” he said.
After months of turmoil in the PNP’s St Elizabeth North Eastern organisation, 63-year-old Redman received the approval of 339 of 467 delegates who turned out for a ratification exercise in late September.
That followed the PNP’s announcement of Pryce’s formal withdrawal from the contest.
Pryce’s withdrawal came in the aftermath of the highly unusual decision by his supporters, including former Mayor of Black River Daphne Holmes, to take the PNP to court over the selection process. The move was said to have deeply angered the PNP hierarchy.
St Elizabeth North Eastern is routinely considered one of the safest seats for the PNP in rural Jamaica. Pryce won by more than 4,000 votes in December 2011, despite entering the constituency just weeks before that election.