THE officers of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) are the first among a number of individuals to be sued by former water and housing minister Dr Karl Blythe as he says he tries to clear his name of the stain left by the 2002 Angus report which led to his resignation from that ministry.

Blythe’s lawyer Antonette Haugton-Cardenas said the JLP has already been sued for libel based on campaign advertisements the party ran in April 2002.

“Libel suit has been filed against all officers. We have met already in respect of the management aspect of it. A court date has been set for January 2006, but we will meet before in order to decide whether or not the parties can come to an agreement,” Blythe said yesterday at a Norwood Avenue press conference.

The JLP ads, he said, had been based on information from the Angus report. The four-man committee’s findings after a probe of Operation Pride projects across the island labelled Blythe an interventionist minister and painted a picture of ministerial interference, cronyism, poor management and possible corruption at Operation Pride. The report concluded, inter alia, that approximately $1.6 billion was squandered under the minister’s watch. According to Blythe, the JLP ads asked him to account for the $1.6 billion.

Blythe, whom the Rattary Report later cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to both Operation Pride, and the National Housing Development Corporation, was left out of Prime Minister P J Patterson’s Cabinet following the party’s narrow October 2002 election win.

Turning to the Angus Committee members yesterday, Blythe – who has indicated an interest in the leadership of the People’s National Party when Patterson steps down – said members will be individually sued for destroying his reputation if they do not apologise to him.

“We are open to an apology at anytime,” his lawyer said when asked if a specific timetable had been set for the apology to be given. She added that while they wait, a legal team had been assembled to “take action”.

The individuals named in that aspect of the suit are Irwin Angus, Noel Levy, Carlton DePass and Robert Martin.

Haugton-Cardenas said she is in receipt of a letter from the Attorney General’s Department, on behalf of one of the Angus Committee members, indicating that legal action against him will be defended.

Dr Blythe said he has been waiting for almost two years, and no one has yet apologised. No one, he said as he read from a prepared text, “should be allowed to recklessly attempt to destroy one’s integrity, tarnish one’s reputation and in so doing, cause the individual to pre-maturely withdraw from such office”.

And he denied that his demand for an apology was connected to the race for the leadership of the PNP.

“I am only interested in having my name cleared,” Blythe said.