Azan's supporters demand his reinstatement

Following the ruling by the Director of Public Prosecutions that no criminal charge will be brought against Richard Azan, Member of Parliament for North West Clarendon, a number of supporters gathered in Spalding on Friday morning to reinforce their support for him.

The supporters gathered in front of the Spalding Market in Clarendon demanding that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller reinstate Mr. Azan as Junior Minister in the Ministry of Transport, Housing and Works.

The People's National Party Youth Organisation (PNPYO) has also called for the Prime Minister to immediately reinstate Mr. Azan as Minister of State.

Alric Campbell, PNPYO President, told RJR News that the organisation was pushing for this course of actiion, even as it recognised that Mr. Azan had committed procedural breaches in the manner in which he went about procuring the establishment of a number of wooden vending shops at the Spalding market.

The shops were built on property belonging to the Clarendon Parish Council, without the permission and planning approval of the Council. The construciton was undertaken by a private contractor who  used his own funds to finance the project and thereafter instituted a system of rent collection, through the office of the Member of Parliament, as a means of recovering his expenditure.

Dirk Harrison, Jamaica's Contractor General, having investigated the whole affair, concluded that several procedural breaches had been committed in the establishment of the shops and that the Parish Council had been deprived of revenues by virtue of the money for rental of the shops being pocketed by the contractor, instead of the owner of the property - the Clarendon Parish Council.

The Contractor General referred Mr. Azan's conduct to the DPP who ruled on Thursday that there was no basis on which to bring action against him.

After the Contractor General's report was tabled in Parliament a weeka go, Mr. Azan, bowing to public pressure, resigned his post as Minsiter of State, even as he maintained that he had done nothing illegal.

This latest development not only provides vindication for the MP's position, it has strengthened the voices of his supporters who, from the beginning, had angrily dismissed his critics.