MOUNTAINSIDE, St Elizabeth – Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for South- West St Elizabeth Dr Christopher Tufton says he suspects there is a plan to undermine his credibility by way of “the planting of illegal substances whether guns or drugs” at premises connected to him.

Tufton, an Opposition Senator, told party supporters at a divisional meeting in Mountainside on Sunday night that as far back as “three to four months ago” he grew so fearful of the sinister possibility that he made a report to the police high command in St Elizabeth and requested additional security and surveillance for his office and home.

Tufton, who has been ‘on the ground’ in SW St Elizabeth for the past three years, is slated to face the Rev Stanley Redwood of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) in parliamentary elections, which, under the constitution, must be held before November this year.

Public opinion polls have suggested that Tufton holds a commanding lead over Redwood – who took on candidacy a few months ago – in a constituency that has been retained by the PNP’s current General Secretary Donald Buchanan since 1989.

Buchanan, who is information minister in the government of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, plans to retire from representational politics come the elections.

“I had to write a letter to the head of police in Black River (Supt Maurice Robinson, since transferred to Westmoreland). indicating to him that based on information I have picked up on the ground, I was requesting additional security for my office and my home in Black River.

Because my information suggested that there was a move afoot to undermine my credibility,” Tufton told a large, enthusiastic crowd at the Mountainside Primary School.

“They can’t win fair so they are practising other approaches, an attempt to undermine my credibility by planting illegal substances . whether guns or drugs at one of the two premises that I occupy, my office or my home. I have had reason to be concerned enough to write that letter to the police,” he added.

Yesterday Supt Robinson confirmed that he had received a report from Tufton on the matter.

And while insisting that he was not “casting any stones”, Tufton said the recent hijacking of a car in South St Elizabeth by three gunmen from Payne Avenue in Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s constituency of South-West St Andrew had sparked additional concern in his mind about the possibility of trouble being stirred by elements from outside. The three alleged bandits were eventually cornered and killed by police in Clarendon.

Tufton noted that the police took guns from the three men killed in the Clarendon shoot-out and “my concern is that after the initial investigation it was revealed that these three men, these three criminals were from SW St Andrew, the prime minister’s constituency”.

Tufton added: “Now let me make it clear. Let me make it clear. I am not casting any stones on anybody. I am not impugning any motive against anybody. I am not judging anybody.

But what I am saying to you the citizens of this constituency and this division and the parish and to Jamaica is that we need to be vigilant, we need to support the police, we need to help them to apprehend any criminals or persons engaged in criminal activity.

This parish is not accustomed to that and we don’t want it to get to that point, any time at all whether now or in the future.”

But he said he had found increasing reason for concern because of “strange” events and “faces” in the constituency and the wider parish of St Elizabeth just recently.

Tufton’s comments came against the backdrop of a peace march in Black River, the parish capital and the principal town in SW St Elizabeth by PNP affiliates on Saturday. The march which was said to be meant to encourage the maintenance of peace “before and after the elections” included Redwood and Buchanan.