The Prime Minister Bruce Golding has said sorry for the manner in which he has handled the Manatt affair. He has also confirmed that the justice minister, Dorothy Lightbourne, will sign the extradition request for West Kingston strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke. Mr Golding made the announcement in an address to the nation a short while ago. Mr Golding has also confirmed that he will stay on as Prime Minister despite intense calls for him to resign. According to Mr Golding, he has decided to stay on, because his party rejected his offer to resign. However, Mr Golding says it will not be business as usual as there will now be tough, new and “uncompromising” measures. “Jamaica’s business cannot continue to be disrupted by the ordeal of the last few months,” Golding said in his address to the nation. The Prime Minister’s address the nation also followed the controversy over the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips affair. The affair involves the hiring of the US-based law firm
 purportedly by the governing Jamaica Labour Party to lobby America in the request for Coke to be extradited on drug and gun charges. Today as news spread that the request would be signed several businesses in downtown Kingston closed their shutters as the anxiety mounted. The Supreme Court also ordered workers to go home. There are also reports that businesses in Spanish Town, St Catherine also closed their shutters as police and soldiers begin to increase patrols across the commercial centres in St Catherine and the corporate area.
