PNP caretaker for South East St. Catherine, Dr. Alfred Dawes says he strongly refuted claims that he was poisoned last July, because at that time when he was being hounded by the media, he had yet to receive the relevant test results from a lab.
The issue resurfaced on the weekend when Dr. Dawes himself confirmed on a political platform that he was in fact poisoned.
He says it was a politically motivated plot aimed at tarnishing his reputation.
The revelation has stunned Jamaicans.
Daina Davy reports.
In July last year, information began circulating that Dr. Dawes, the PNP’s candidate in waiting in South East St. Catherine had been poisoned.
When Nationwide News reached out to Dr. Dawes, he told our news centre, in clear language, that the information was false.
He also spoke with other media entities explaining that he was at a restaurant and had an allergic reaction.
He says it was due to an abundance of caution that he went to have it checked at a medical facility.
But on Sunday while speaking to comrades at Waterford High School in Portmore, Dr. Dawes told a different story.
The revelation by the popular doctor that the poison was meant to kill a fellow comrade and implicate him in murder stunned his audience and has left Jamaicans shocked.
Some are questioning why Dr. Dawes did not share the information at the time of the incident.
In leaked audio circulating on social media and heard by Nationwide News, Dr. Dawes shared that at the time he spoke with the media he did not yet know he had been poisoned.
Dr. Dawes says following confirmation that he was poisoned, he didn’t see the need to reach out to the media to clarify his previous statement.