KINGSTON, Jamaica – Former Security Minister Dwight Nelson will today continue his evidence when the Tivoli Gardens enquiry enters its fourth week.

Last Friday, Nelson testified that former Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington never provided him with a critique of the conduct of the operations to nab don Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke and restore law and order to Tivoli Gardens.   

“The police commissioner… in his report to you, gave you no impression that there was anything wrong or deficient with the operation of the police in the West Kingston operation?” Terrence Williams, the head of the Independent Commission of Investigations asked Nelson.

“He never mentioned any such opinion or observation,” said Nelson.

“Nor did he identify any weaknesses or areas for improvement, that’s what you said?” Commission Chairman Sir David Simmons interjected.

“Right,” Nelson said.

Former Prime Minster Bruce Golding testified in the enquiry earlier this week that he got the impression that the forces in Tivoli Gardens during the May 2010 operation to apprehend Coke were under no proper supervision and that each man was doing his own thing.

Seventy three civilians lost their lives in the operation and a soldier killed.

Nelson also testified Friday that the police told him that people were being killed in Tivoli Gardens by criminals prior to the security forces entering the community.

Nelson said the police told him that the killings were to instill fear into residents.

He said also that he received reports from the police that criminals were preventing residents from leaving Tivoli Gardens prior to the operations. He said Prime Minister Bruce Golding received this report as well.

The former security minister also gave evidence that he had not been informed by the police how Coke managed to elude arrest during the operation.

He said there were various theories, including that he escaped dressed as a woman or via tunnels.

Nelson further testified under questioning from Deborah Martin, attorney for the Jamaica Constabulary Force that, through the police, he was aware of Coke’s influence across the island and that he was informed by the police that men from communities outside of Tivoli Gardens had gone into the community to assist in the resistance of Coke’s arrest.

Paul Henry