Miller still has Transformation job

Embattled evangelical pastor Merrick 'Al' Miller has met with Prime Minister Bruce Golding to explain his role in the capture of one-time fugitive Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

However, Information Minister Daryl Vaz, who made the disclosure yesterday, said Miller's fate as head of the National Transformation Programme (NTP) has not been decided.

"I can't say where those discussions have led, but we are cognisant of the implications of the charges that have been laid against Reverend Al Miller," Vaz told reporters during the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.

Attempts to get a comment from Miller late yesterday were unsuccessful.

An arrest warrant was out for Coke when he was nabbed in Miller's sport utility vehicle along Mandela Highway last Tuesday.

Miller, in his defence, claimed he was taking the accused crime lord to the United States Embassy in St Andrew, where Coke wanted to turn himself in.

After two days of questioning by detectives from the Organised Crime Investigation Division, Miller was charged with harbouring a fugitive and perverting the course of justice.

Court tomorrow

He is out on $200,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court tomorrow.

The Opposition People's National Party has since called for Miller to be sacked as head of the NTP, a parastatal body based in the Office of the Prime Minister.

However, Vaz cautioned against a rush to judgement, pointing out that Miller had been instrumental in getting several persons of interest to surrender to the police.

"We must not overlook the whole situation and what transpired pre-May 24 (the date of the military incursion into Tivoli Gardens) and post-May 24," he said.

"It was not an isolated case where Jamaica woke up to hear that Al Miller was found in the company of Christopher Coke," he added.

The information minister said it is widely known that Miller had visited Tivoli Gardens prior to May 24 to urge Coke to surrender.