“They will say I am political but what yuh expect mi fi do?” Those were the words of the controversial Chief of the Accompong Maroons, Richard Currie as he addressed the annual conference of the People’s National Party (PNP) at the National Arena on Sunday.

Currie told the sea of orange-clad comrades that the maroons “will no longer accept violation of our rights and disrespect and therefore, we’re here today; we journeyed far, and we sojourned to deliver a message”.

Currie, who has been known to be at odds with the Government said “the point is that we have been soliciting a government for three-and-a-half years and to date they have not responded to us. To date they have not attended one function and Marky G (PNP President Mark Golding) has (responded) because he has vim, vigor and vitality,” Currie remarked.

“This man is a true man, this man is as real as it gets,” he added of Golding.

According to Currie, “the maroons are here today to deliver a powerful message that for those who think they can undermine the rights of those who were here 287 years before, we have a sad, sad, message to deliver in a few months’ time because the people are tired”. He seemed to be referencing what political commentators anticipate could be an early general election.

The maroon chief said issues of poverty and crime among others were enough for maroons and other Jamaicans to unite around.

Currie told PNP supporters that he stood before them not as a political representative but as a proud representative of Jamaica’s first nation. He said the presence of the maroons was both a statement and a gesture, “as statement of unity and gesture towards mutual respect and peace with Accompong maroons and all maroons islandwide”.

Currie told Golding that when the PNP assumes state power “you also have a home in Accompong bredda”.