OCHO RIOS, St Ann – The Internal Affairs Commission of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has moved to quash the latest dispute between two comrades within the party – Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern Lisa Hanna and Councillor Ian Bell of the Beecher Town Division in the constituency.

Hanna is claiming that Bell repeatedly threatened to physically abuse her during a mediation session held between the two on July 11 at a resort in Runaway Bay, St Ann.

Bell told the Jamaica Observer that the party’s Internal Affairs Committee has contacted him on the issue. “I just come off the phone with Comrade Fenton Ferguson, who is the chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee for the party, and I am not obliged to say anything to any media house at this time,” he said yesterday.

In a statement made to the Constant Spring Police and dated July 14, Hanna reportedly wrote: “There was a party meeting that was a mediation session. I was sitting at a table and he [Bell] was sitting at another table. During the meeting, we came to a decision that he did not agree with and he became upset and said these words ‘Mi wi tump yuh inna yuh mouth; mi wi tump yuh inna yuh face!’ That was said several times.”

Hanna further told the police she thinks Bell is capable of carrying out the purported threat.

The Observer has been unable to reach her as her mobile phone has been ringing without an answer since Wednesday and there has been no reply to messages sent.

Bell confirmed yesterday that the police have contacted him regarding the alleged threat.

“A report was made to the police, because the police contacted me, but the superintendent who spoke to me told me that I did not commit any breach… any threat because a threat cannot be conditional,” he said.

Bell was once viewed as the councillor most loyal to Hanna while the MP has had a tumultuous relationship with other councillors in the constituency. But the two have been at loggerheads for months.

Bell resigned from the constituency executive a few months ago, claiming that he was being disrespected by Hanna and her workers in the constituency office.