Call made for ‘grossly inaccurate section’ to be retracted

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas

ST. KITTS, FEBRUARY 22, 2010 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has called for the retraction of a segment of the local NGO Coalition Report saying that segment is “grossly inaccurate.”

Referring to the section to Chapter 3:6 of the report issued three weeks after the January 25th general elections, Prime Minister Douglas in a telephone call to the popular Journey’s programme repeated that the report is “malicious in intent and deliberately false.”

He referred to the recent dispute, involving the President of the NGO Coalition Bishop Ron Collins and the Customs Department over a bounced check issued for a shipment of toys.

“It is because of inaccuracies and lack of respect for truth on the part of some of these persons who crafted this particular report,” said Dr. Douglas who said that he had credible information from agents of his St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party that were in Half Way Tree on election day, that “Ron Collins himself was the person from the NGO Coalition, who seemed to have been monitoring the Half Way Tree area and other areas in St. Christopher 4.

“In light of the controversy, which is presently existing with Ron Collins and the Customs, and the half truths and lies and the inaccuracies that have now come to light, after the Financial Secretary, Mrs Janet Harris brought those to the attention of the public, it is in the same vein that I am calling for this part of the report to be withdrawn,” Dr. Douglas told the programme host, veteran Caribbean broadcaster, Mr. Lennox Linton.

Dr. Douglas stated that if this part of the report cannot be corrected then the entire report must be withdrawn and it will not be accepted “as being genuine on the observance by this government and by the Labour Party that I lead as well.”

Prime Minister Douglas says he believes the controversy with Mr. Collins will continue because “Collins seems to have a deliberate mandate, firstly to carry the agenda of PAM and secondly an attempt to tarnish me personally as the leader of the Labour and as the Prime Minister of this country.”

Dr. Douglas said he takes “very strong objections to that” and he intends to place in writing the government’s position and the Labour Party’s position on the matter and that he was asking the other two members who have signed the report as members of the NGO Coalition to withdraw the section of the report or the entire report will be rejected the entire report as “grossly inaccurate and deliberately malicious in attempting to tarnish the name of the prime minister and also the leaders of the Labour Party.”