AG faces heat in the senate

KINGSTON – Attorney General and Justice Minister Senator Dorothy Lightbourne will next week face a no-confidence motion brought by opposition senators much similar to the one brought against Prime Minister Bruce Golding earlier this month.The motion against Lightbourne, notice of which was given in the Senate last Friday by opposition senator Sandrea Falconer, called on the Senate to “condemn the attorney general for using the power of the state to prevent the smooth flow of the process by which the requested surrender of an alleged drug lord was to be pursued, causing unprecedented scorn and embarrassment upon the Jamaican state within the community of nations”.It said the justice minister with “spurious reasons and excuses delayed for nine months the signing of an authority to proceed on an extradition request made by a friendly state and this request was in respect of a person (Christopher “Dudus” Coke) accused of drug-trafficking and gunrunning”.It said Lightbourne’s “act constituted a direct assault upon the rule of law, scant respect for the proper administration of justice and gross dereliction of ministerial responsibility”.The motion called further for the Senate to declare that Lightbourne be censured for her actions during the nine-month hiatus. It also said the “mismanagement of the extradition process has so severely impacted her trustworthiness and competence that she no longer enjoys the confidence of the Senate as minister”.Lightbourne, who was itching to respond to the call for a debate, relented to requests from government members who asked that the motion be taken next week.“I am raring to defend myself, but my colleagues would prefer that the matter be taken next week,” she said. (Jamaica Observer)