BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PAM Deputy Political Leader Eugene Hamilton has deemed allegations about the vandalism of his billboards made by Housing Minister Hon. Cedric Liburd to be “clutching at straws”.
Two weekends ago, billboards in St. Peters belonging to the opposition politician were damaged. In an article disseminated by the Labour Secretariat, Liburd condemned the actions of the vandals but noted something more underhanded might be going on.
“Hamilton will do anything to ensure that the teacher-calypsonian does not replace him as the candidate...and if he has anything to do with it, I must also tell him to stop it,” the Minister had warned.
In response, Hamilton said that Liburd’s comments were in keeping with the agenda of himself and the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) to discredit his reputation. He stressed that this was not the first time the SKNLP and its supporters had made such allegations.
“Minister Liburd and his party are clutching at the proverbial straws. This is obviously part of their smear campaign against me, and it shows they will go to any lengths to win the election.
“When I was hit in the face by a stone in March, the Labour Party suggested that I had orchestrated the entire event. They are obviously trying to tarnish my reputation so they can win the election. We’ve seen what happens in campaigns in places like Jamaica, and God forbid they’d take it to those lengths, but I’m not putting anything past the Labour government,” Hamilton stated.
Even though police are currently investigating the matter, Hamilton said he was not confident that it would be resolved satisfactorily. He made reference to past investigations that he claimed had been hampered by political machinations.
“I have given the police information on whom I was told been seen carrying out this act, so I expect things would be cleared up by then. However, if the vandalism was carried out by SKNLP supporters, I would expect that the police force would be under pressure to cover up the incident.
“It has been shown they can’t pursue people doing things on behalf of Labour. The police opened an investigation into my stone-throwing incident; months later, I have not heard a word about it. It suggests to me that even at that level there seems to be some influence by the government on how investigations are conducted when things like these happen.”
The opposition politician said he would not be surprised if, ultimately, nothing would be said or done by the police concerning the incident.
