Total nonsense! - Paul Buchanan denies ‘vile’ claims

Former St Andrew West Rural Member of Parliament (MP) Paul Buchanan has rejected explosive allegations circulating online that he was the target of a political honey trap, which resulted in him being robbed of his firearm, a countless amount of cash and his motor vehicle, during the run-up to the September 3 general election.

The allegations came from former People's National Party (PNP) activist Karen Cross, who, in a widely circulated video, said she paid two women to monitor Buchanan, rob him whenever possible, and keep him distracted. Cross further claimed that one of the women performed sexual favours, while extracting valuable information to derail his bid to unseat Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness in St Andrew West Central.

"One of them job ... keep him focus on you. Every opportunity you get and him look like him stressed, and him a quarrel, and everybody dung pon him, mek sure that you tell him that him must calm down, because later on yuh gonna ...," Cross asserted in the video.

She continued: "I instructed them [that] every and any opportunity you get, [you should] rob him ... tek weh him money. as much as it as you can."

But Buchanan, in an interview with THE WEEKEND STAR, dismissed the accusations as false and defamatory.

"I've seen the video and heard the allegations. It's total nonsense," Buchanan said. "I am not involved with any sex worker and I don't know Karen Cross."

Buchanan said his lawyers have been instructed to act and that he will also be writing to the commissioner of police.

"All that is vile and disgusting, what she does. She's not my friend, and her lies are palpable," he said.

The former MP described the allegations as "cruel and cold and wicked", insisting that Cross was deliberately spreading falsehoods.

"There are a number of people who said to me, 'Don't give Karen Cross lies in the wings, just leave it as it is.' But I can't do that. I have a daughter who is a doctor who just graduated ... my son, a budding electrical engineer, I have children abroad who are principals, who are bankers, who are all sort of professionals. I cannot damage their integrity because of somebody like Karen Cross. So I have to act."

"When you hear of the thing that she's alleged, as if you have intimate knowledge about me, it's a lie, lie, lie. She's a good actress. Obviously, the inference is that she is opting to nullify the Andrew Holness fallout with the election, to make me look bad and to harm my reputation," he said.

Ahead of the general election, Buchanan was bold in his chatter that he would stun Holness by winning the seat which the Jamaica Labour Party leader has held since 1997. However, he suffered a 2,110-vote loss. He later petitioned for the election to be voided, citing violence and intimidation in the Olympic Gardens and Molynes Gardens divisions, as well as alleged irregularities with 18 ballot boxes removed from the Seaward Primary School polling cluster.

However, last Wednesday, the Constituted Authority dismissed his application.