Buju Banton Barred From Entering Maroon Settlement

There have been mixed reactions to reports that Buju Banton was barred by soldiers and police from entering the Moore Town Maroon settlement in Portland on Sunday, en route to casting his ballot in favour of Lomora “Hope” Dillon in the Maroon elections.

Dillon was challenging the incumbent Moore Town Chief, Colonel Wallace Sterling, who has held the position for the last 28 years.  She had cited the underdevelopment within the Maroon settlement, despite the community being rich with resources that are capable of generating income, as a reason for throwing her hat in the ring.

Buju, who last year affirmed his status as a Moore Town Maroon, had thrown his support behind Hope and publicly encouraged Maroons from the area to cast their votes in her favour to help oust the serving leader, whom it was argued had overstayed his welcome.

On Sunday, a report from the Gleaner stated that Commanding Officer for the Portland Police Division, Superintendent Kenneth Chin had confirmed a claim made by Hope’s mother,  Annette Aarons, that Buju was stopped at a checkpoint in Fellowship.

The report quoted another police source as saying that Buju was stopped along with an entourage travelling in a bus.  He was reportedly questioned about his presence in the area and then refused entry by the joint police-military team manning the checkpoint, who ordered him to turn back.

A similar order was issued to Buju’s friend, Richard Currie, Chief of the Accompong Maroons in St Elizabeth, after he was intercepted in the parish by the security forces.

Colonel Sterling had reported a few days earlier that he had received death threats via telephone, but the police had not said publicly, whether or not this had been verified.

In response to the reports of Buju’s barring, over on Instagram, there were comments spanning jeering by many who did not know of Buju’s Maroon heritage, to stark defence of the Til Shiloh artist by Jamaicans who contend that he has a constitutional right to Freedom of Movement.

“You should be outraged that a Jamaican citizen can be told where he can and cannot go and he was not committing a crime or trespassing,” stevethehigson declared, while vada added: “Suh nuh maroon business him ago about how police come into dis?”

“This is unconstitutional like Buju Banton is a maroon himself and even if wasn’t a maroon as a Jamaican citizens he have all rights to enter unless the maroons did not want him their then they themselves would have him removed, not the law enforcement!!!!,” jamesmontana133 declared.

“Because buju would have help drawn persons to vote for the girl they bared him. In every thing or every where u go theres some sabotage and curruption. Because he is a great influencer,” Jerome Simpson said.

However, one commenter said that Buju, if he were determined, could have easily circumvented the security forces by trodding on foot, through the hilly terrain to the destination.

“All him have to do is get out of his vehicle an walk through river an bush till him reach,😱,” staciaroyal said.

There were others who mocked both Buju and Currie, claiming that they were being meddlesome.

“Dem to nuff. Serve dem right 😂😂😂😂😂. Big mothers day, gwan go look for you mothers or wife of enuh have any,” wackie_doo jeered.

“Kmt from them vote in this man and him lick head wid Buju a beah problem inna Maroon land!!!!!!! Them inna news weekly and it’s not positive!!!!!!!” Carolette added.

Others contended that Sterling should not be hanging on to power for so many years, and ought to step aside and allow someone younger to lead.

“Why this old man hang on to power give the young people a chance he should step aside and be guiding her into leadership role,” Ethel said, while Deyrol_Fyha added: “Remove the old man.  Tell you about them.   Come like Mugabe.”

Neither Buju nor Currie have been heard from since the incident.  However, Hope has since made two posts. In the first, she thanked her supporters and rebuked the Jamaica Defence Force soldiers and members of the Constabulary, whom she claimed scared many of them away with what she said was their unnecessary presence.

“Though the security forces claimed they would not interfere, they did not keep their word as they started to restrict our movement within our own territory, and harassed our people vigorously conducting invasive searches and intimidating would be voters with their heavy military weaponry in an otherwise peaceful community which has never had a single murder,” she wrote.

She went on to state that due to the traditional voting procedure in Moore Town not being anonymous, “many residents felt extremely threatened by the military presence and the presence of high powered weapons and feared for their lives should they take part in the procedure”.

She also rebuked the Andrew Holness administration for what she said was interference in a democratic process, which did not concern them.

“It is unfortunate that the Jamaican government felt it necessary to interfere with our democratic process by deploying military forces to intimidate voters, set up barricades to prevent voters from entering the voting location and went as far as to prevent us from even using a microphone during our meeting to enable everyone to hear the proceedings,” she wrote.

“It is a tragedy that a 28 year old dictatorial regime is being supported by the Jamaican government. Despite all this, I would like to report that at our township meeting, among those brave enough to vote, when the votes were taken to decide who should remain as Chief, Colonel Wallace Sterling did not receive a single vote whilst myself received almost 80 votes. It is a shame that Mr Sterling had to resort to propaganda making false and defamatory claims that he was threatened and colluded with the state to thwart our process,” she continued.

Declaring herself victorious, she also claimed that the discontent with Colonel’s performance was not new as a vote of no confidence was signed by more than 100 Maroons for his removal, and the agitation for an election had been ongoing since then.  She also said that if the Colonel is confident in his leadership, he ought to honour the Maroons’ right to an election.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CdVnGn3u-ay/

However Colonel Sterling has since said that he would be inviting his opponent and her mother to a meeting of the Maroon Council, noting that they had not used the correct process to mount a challenge.   He had also expressed concern that Hope had used his image on her ballot paper without his permission.

“We are going to invite some other elders and some other influential Maroon persons and we are going to talk about that,” he said during an interview on Radio Jamaica’s Beyond the Headlines yesterday.