'Dudus' enquiry starts today
Published:Monday | January 17, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Nadisha Hunter, Gleaner Writer
THE commission of enquiry into the handling of the extradition request for former west Kingston strongman Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and the subsequent engagement of United States law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips is scheduled to get under way today.
The enquiry, which is scheduled to take place at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston, is set to cost taxpayers close to $40 million.
People's National Party (PNP) Deputy General Secretary Julian Robinson said the party is ready to fully participate in the enquiry.
"We felt strongly that the lack of consultation on the part of the prime minister (Bruce Golding) undermined confidence in the commissioners (but) having been appointed, we intend to fully participate in the commission," Robinson said yesterday. "There is a team of lawyers that will represent the opposition leader (Portia Simpson Miller) and who will participate fully in the enquiry."
'Enquiry unnecessary'
However, Yvonne McCalla Sobers, convener of human rights lobby Families Against State Terrorism, says an enquiry was not needed to reveal the truth about the Dudus-Manatt Affair.
According to McCalla Sobers, the commission of enquiry is likely to be a waste of taxpayers' money.
"I have a concern for enquiries. I have a concern that oftentimes they end up covering up the truth rather than revealing the truth. I think that those who know the truth could have revealed it without a costly enquiry," she charged.
"I think that at a time like this when there are so many urgent needs simply going unattended, I think that this is not the time to spend this type of money on a matter that may go nowhere," she added.
The enquiry will probe the events which led to Coke's extradition to the United States on June 24, 10 months after a request was made for him by the US to face drug and gunrunning charges.
Attorneys-at-law Hugh Small and Sherry-Ann McGregor will represent Prime Minister Bruce Golding at the hearings, while attorneys K.D. Knight and Patrick Anderson, instructed by Opposition Spokesman on Justice, A.J. Nicholson, will represent the PNP.
Golding in October announced the establishment of the commission, to be chaired by attorney Emil George, in response to pressure from the Opposition and interest groups which called for an enquiry into the circumstances surrounding the extradition.