Nodley Wright, Freelance Writer
Sheridan Samuels, the man who brought the no-confidence motion again the Crenston Boxhill administration at the JFF congress in St. Elizabeth yesterday. - PHOTO BY ADRIAN FRATER
SHERIDAN SAMUELS was a man on a mission yesterday and he wasted little time in attempting to get his job done.
Soon after he arrived at Munro College, Samuels announced that he would be the one to raise the motion for a vote of no confidence against the Crenston Boxhill-led administration.
As soon as the meeting was called to order, he went directly at the president seeking to have the standing order suspended and the matter of the vote of no-confidence addressed.
The president, as is his right, indicated that that matter was not important enough and could be dealt with in Item 13 on the agenda, which deals with any other business.
He stuck slavishly to his position for close to an hour and only after the intervention of a trio of attorneys-at-law present in Kingston and St. Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) President Stewart Stephenson, Heron Dale and Jerome Spence did the meeting continue after a five-minute break.
PROCEDURE
Samuels, a People's National Party (PNP) councilor in Hanover, said he was following parliamentary procedure.
The meeting resumed and got as far as the completion of the president's address on the addenda before Samuels, as if he had fire in his bones, attempted once more with the support of St. Ann president Danny Beckford and his delegation, West-moreland's Everton Tomlinson and his team, as well as some of the delegates from Hanover.
When his opportunity finally came, Samuels gave a lengthy presentation which covered over five typed pages and included 15 points.
It claimed among other things the regression of the national programme, the national youth programme being a myth and a publicity stunt - the training centre - being in jeopardy due to mismanagement, a lack of transparency and a failure to share a grant of US$25,000 among the parishes.
When the votes were counted and the opposing faction failed to realise the two-thirds majority or 70 votes they would have needed to recall president Boxhill and his administration, a toned-down Samuels said he would still work along with the JFF for the betterment of football as that was his purpose.
DEFENCE
He defended his behaviour during the meeting by saying: "I was only following the provision of the constitution which says that one could move for a suspension of the standing order and have another matter brought forward. That is all I was doing and they did not want to allow it.
"If I have similar concerns in the future I will definitely address them by the same route," an unrepentant Samuels declared.
Samuels also took offence to insinuations that he and the other very vocal members of the opposition group were motivated by financial benefits received.
"I take offence to that suggestion. I cannot be bought. I am a councillor," he said.
