Challenge against leader of Moore Town Maroons fizzles

Colonel Wallace Sterling's leadership of the Moore Town Maroons in Portland remains after 18-year-old Lomorra Dillon's bid to unseat him failed to spark on today's 'election day'. 

There was hardly any support for Dillon despite weeks of buzz since the teen announced she wanted to end Sterling's 27-year rule. 

But officials from Moore Town indicated today that the challenge was never legitimate as there was no official sanction for an election. 

"Any such election is deemed illegal and I'm urging those seeking to disrupt the peace of the nine Maroon communities in the Rio Grande Valley to desist," said George Harris, a member of the Maroon Council, the highest decision-making body for the Moore Town Maroons. 

"To have a township meeting or a council meeting is the best way to decide whether or there should an election," he added.

Around 4 p.m., Dillon made an appeal persons who had gathered in the area.

“Is there anyone here that feels Colonel Wallace Sterling is doing a good job for the Rio Grande valley? Do you guys feel that it is time for a change?” she asked.

The two questions were directed to an audience of no more than 10 people who converged near the monument of Jamaica's National Heroine, Nanny of the Maroons.

Dillon then asked her few supporters to sign a petition demanding a change of the guard.

Dozens of other persons were nearby but had their focus on a football game that was underway. 

The police were on high alert after Colonel Sterling expressed fear that his life has been threatened, having received a chilling phone call that not only would he lose the election but also his head.

Concerns were also raised over an unsanctioned stage show set to be staged in the community  today. The event was reportedly being supported by another Maroon chief, Colonel Richard Currie, whose image appears on a flyer along with that of a popular reggae artiste.

Earlier today, international reggae artiste Buju Banton and Currie, who heads the Accompany Maroons in St Elizabeth, were separately barred from entering Rio Grande area, The Gleaner learnt.

Commanding officer for the Portland Police Division, Superintendent Kenneth Chin, confirmed that the artiste was stopped at a checkpoint and told to turn back. A similar warning was reportedly given to Currie.

- Gareth Davis 

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