President Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday that television personality Ronald Waddell was one of the persons in the PNC/R leadership linked to the escapees and fingered him as one of the persons circulating leaflets in the city containing inflammatory language.
Asked to comment on the President's allegations, Wad-dell said yesterday evening that if the President had evidence to support this, the proper course of action would be to turn such evidence over to the police.
Jagdeo further said that the PNC could not disassociate itself from Waddell, who was on their list of candidates submitted to the Elections Commission for the 2001 general election.
He challenged the party to come out with a strong statement saying it did not support crime and would support law enforcement officers in their fight against crime and in recapturing the five prison escapees. He said the party could issue another statement as well with regard to its concerns about the police and the death of Buxtonian Shaka Blair but had to make an unequivocal statement against crime.
Waddell also said that the President's conclusion that his name appearing on the list of candidates for the PNC/R made him a leader of that party must have raised eyebrows even within ranks of the PPP/C.
The police issued a statement earlier this week saying that they were continuing investigations into certain inflammatory leaflets, which have been circulating in the city recently and in which Waddell was suspected to have had an involvement.
The release said the force was working thoroughly to investigate the matter and to ascertain the authorship and/or distribution of the leaflets.