KINGSTON, Jamaica— President of the People’s National Party (PNP) Mark Golding has described the state of public emergency (SOE) declared in Rockfort, Kingston as a “PR exercise” by the Government.

An SOE was announced on Friday for Rockfort and its surrounding areas in the Kingston East Division following the fatal shooting of five people at a football match in the community on Monday evening.

READ: SOE declared in east Kingston after mass shooting at Rockfort football game

Golding made the assertion on Friday during a tour of sections of the constituency which are included in the SOE.

PNP President Mark Golding greets Superintendent of Police in charge of the Kingston Eastern Division, Tommie-Lee Chambers during tour of sections of Rockfort on Friday, October 25, 2024.

“Well, they announced another SOE today, I think it was. You know, I think that’s really a PR exercise. I’ve driven through a large part of the area covered by the SOE… I haven’t seen one soldier or police until I got to the police station where we are now. So, you know, I don’t think that that response is, as you know, lawful. We’ve taken that matter to the constitutional court and we’re awaiting the hearing of that matter,” Golding said

The PNP president went on to compare the Government’s reaction to the Rockfort killing to that of Trelawny’s Operation Recovery, which reportedly resulted in arrests and millions of dollars associated with lottery scamming being seized.

“But, you know, I was reading in the papers, I think on October the 10th, about Operation Recovery in Trelawny, which was intensive saturation of the space which had been affected by violence related to lotto scamming involving the police and the JDF (Jamaica Defence Force), and they’d found weapons and they’d arrested various people and so on, and there was no SOE there.”

“So, you know, to my mind, what this shows you is that the necessary tools to get control of an area exist without resorting to the ultimate constitutional weapon of a state of emergency, which is really there to protect the subversion of the State, not to deal with difficult policing work that may arise from time to time. And that’s our position, and we are waiting to hear whether the courts agree with us or not,” Golding argued.

In a message to the residents of Rockfort, Golding encouraged them not to seek vengeance for the deaths of the five people who were killed. Instead, he urged them to follow Christian teachings to return the community back to an era of peace.

READ: 5 killed in Rockfort mass shooting

“I would urge everyone, you know, to leave vengeance to the Lord. You know, that is not the role of man. We must live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ, which is to embrace peace and love,” Golding urged.

He added: “And, you know, revenge doesn’t bring back anything that has gone on already. So, you know, I would urge persons to just try to bring the peace movement in the constituency back together, and so we can avoid any escalation of the situation or reprisals for what has happened. That’s my personal view.”