Blackett says intruders changed locks in office at DLP headquarters

A new twist to the bitter divisions in the opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP) saw police being called in by General Secretary Steve Blackett to investigate what he claimed was an “inside job” break-in at the George Street headquarters on Thursday.

But the alleged intruders apparently changed locks, prompting the embattled party official to claim “the legitimate leadership of the party” was being prevented from accessing the office.

Up to late Thursday, as several officers combed the scene, it was unclear whether anything had been stolen.

Amid all this, several senior members of the party were holding a meeting. Blackett, who maintained that he was the “duly elected” party general secretary, dismissed the gathering as an unauthorised meeting of“dissidents”.

Recalling the developments that led to police being called, he told reporters that just before 5 p.m., he received an alert about an intrusion on the compound.

He said: “We secured the premises just around 1:45 today, placed the locks as usual on the gates…the two front gates. The office was locked since early in the week. I was alerted around 4:45 this evening that the cameras picked up that there were people trying to breach the front gates. And then after they got into the front gate by cutting the locks and the chains, they then proceeded to breach the office and the conference room. When I got that report, I called the police immediately.”

As police officers walked through the party headquarters, Blackett added: “What was even more egregious is that the perpetrators – I’m calling them perpetrators – actually changed the locks to the conference room and, therefore, the legitimate leadership of this party can no longer access the office.”

Blackett was adamant that the alleged break-in it was “more than an inside job – an inner inside job”.

He could not say at the time if anything was missing, adding that checks were being made.

But as police interviewed a number of people at the scene, Barbados TODAY observed several DLP members, including assistant general secretary Pedro Shepherd, fourth vice-president Andre Worrell, Senator Ryan Walters, Neil Marshall, Dr David Estwick, Paul Gibson, Kemar Stuart, holding a meeting.

Worrell spoke briefly to reporters but declined to give any details, indicating only that the party might hold a press conference on Friday.

When reporters questioned Blackett about the meeting, he insisted that “there was no official meeting being held by the Democratic Labour Party tonight or this week”.

“What you’re hearing in the background is a meeting of the dissident elements of this party,” he said.

As the evening wore on, it became apparent that the incident was the latest chapter in the drama of party in-fighting that began with the entry of Ralph Thorne as political leader after defecting from the ruling Barbados Labour Party. The wrangling further intensified in April when veteran member Hartley Reid filed a no-confidence motion calling for the removal of President Dr Ronnie Yearwood, Blackett and the party’s entire executive council.

The motion, which the executive council deemed flawed and in need of investigation, raised concern that Thorne did not receive an invitation sent by Saint Lucia’s Opposition United Workers Party for him to attend that political institution’s 60th-anniversary celebration in Castries. Yearwood, who also received an invitation, led a DLP team to the event. Blackett has maintained that Thorne’s invitation was dispatched to him immediately.

On April 21, Blackett hit back with two resolutions, one calling for the revocation of Thorne’s membership and immediate expulsion from the DLP.The second motion urged the party to back Dr Yearwood as the leader to lead the party into the next general election.

But on May 9, the DLP’s General Council unanimously voted to suspend Blackett pending an investigation into complaints to be heard by the disciplinary committee of the party.

Blackett insisted on Thursday that he was “the duly elected general secretary of the Democratic Labour Party, voted by in by 510 persons and I serve at the pleasure of those 510 persons and only them”.

(SD)