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CHARLESTOWN, Nevis -- Premier of Nevis, Joseph Parry, said that a libellous statement made by Sydney Osborne, the People’s Action Movement (PAM) party representative on a weekly local radio programme, “was malicious and uncalled for”, and he has called on Osborne to make a public apology.

Speaking Tuesday on his weekly radio programme ‘In Touch With the Premier’ on radio stations in the Federation, Parry said “it was regretful” that Osborne could have uttered words to the effect that he (Parry) was personally involved in the removal of names from the electoral list in Nevis, knowing very well that they were false.

“You fully well know that the statement that you made was false. It was malicious and uncalled for,” said the premier. “You have been a teacher at the Grammar School, you have been a senior civil servant; you come from a certain background in St Kitts, that I expect you to be true to yourself.”

“You do not have to be true to me or to anybody. If you were angry or you were resentful, that little apology you made is not good enough. You should have the decency to call me on the phone and say to me - Boy, Parry, I made a mistake, I am sorry.”

On the weekly ‘Inside The News’ programme aired live on Saturday, January 14, Osborne uttered words to the effect that Parry had personally removed names from the voters’ list in Nevis ahead of the July 11, 2011, local elections. When challenged by the Nevis Reformation Party’s (NRP) representative on the programme, Alastair Yearwood, and the programme host and station manager Clive Bacchus, all Osborne said was, “I have taken back those words.”

“I just want to say something publicly to Mr Sydney Osborne,” Parry said on Tuesday. “Sydney Osborne, you and I know each other very well. You were my permanent secretary, I think you are older than me, and we have been good friends all these years. I think you have put me in a position where people are asking me to take you to court. You really made a statement that I did not expect of you.”

Parry said, however, that notwithstanding the demands of some people for him to take legal action, going that route would not solve anything. “I do not know it is going to help anything, and I certainly do not enjoy being in court opposite you. I really think that you need to send a message to the public that you erred, and you knew better, and that it is something you are going to avoid in the future.”

The premier said that if Osborne were to make that apology publicly, it would help in the relationship between the two, and it would take the pressure off him (Parry) to take Osborne to court, adding “the action of taking him to court would not serve any meaningful purpose”.

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