Assistant General Secretary of the main opposition, New National Party (NNP), Dwight Horsford has described as "unfounded" allegations that former Legal Counsel to Cabinet, Hugh Wildman was engaged in corrupt practices with the collapsed First International Bank of Grenada (FIBG).
Horsford, an attorney-at-law like Wildman made the comment in his capacity as legal representative for the former government official who was detained by police on Saturday for questioning in connection with the First Bank affair.
He said he believes that the move against the controversial Jamaican-born Wildman was politically motivated and pointed a finger at the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) which had many running battles with the lawyer.
According to Horsford, the claim of corruption being made against Wildman who served at one time as Director of Public Prosecution, is designed by some members of the Grenada Bar Association (GBA) to tarnish his client's reputation.
Wildman left the island on Monday for Barbados hours after his release from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) after nearly 30 hours of questioning.
The allegation being levelled against Wildman is that he accepted huge sums from First Bank officials as part of a scheme to prevent the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the United States from entering Grenada to probe into the affairs of the financial institution.
Speaking to local reporters following the detention of the once powerful Wildman, Horsford said that the move is clearly linked to personal grudges by some persons on the island due to his appointment as DPP in 2005.
"I suspect more reprisals will come either against him or some other person of the former administration", he remarked.
Horsford also pointed fingers at the current DPP Christopher Nelson who had rather strained relations with Wildman.
"I can see the handy work of the present DPP involved here, who was a subordinate of Mr Wildman when he was DPP and certain officials of the government who opposed Mr Wildman at the Bar (Grenada Bar Association)", he said.
"A lot of these lawyers opposed him (Wildman) for a number of reasons ... one, when Mr Wildman was the DPP, these lawyers scarcely won a case against him in court and secondly, Mr Wildman exposed some of the things that they had been doing to clients", he added.
Horsford also described Wildman as "a very fierce advocate" for the introduction of the Legal Profession Act aimed at providing ethical guidelines for members of the profession.
Within minutes of Wildman being detained and taken downtown to CID head office, Horsford and fellow attorney, Lawrence Joseph, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Public Relations Officer of NNP, Terrence Forester assembled inside the building to lend their assistance.
