Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley comes under some fire for comments he made about the Vieux Fort Housing Project in St. James.

During a Housing Development Corporation distribution ceremony for Vieux Fort last Saturday, Dr. Rowley claimed the project had fallen prey to politics from his own party.

Dr. Rowley recalled a public spat with Mr. Manning, which he said, had the result of depriving citizens of housing.

But the widow of the former Prime Minister Hazel Manning and former Housing Minister Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde strongly disagree.

Yesterday, both women insisted that Mr. Manning would never have stopped any project, which would have benefited the people.

In a letter to the media Mrs. Manning quoted her late husband saying, facts are stubborn things. They are very hard to go away.

Mrs. Manning said it was her responsibility to reply on Mr. Manning’s behalf to allegations made by Dr. Rowley about the project.

She called on those with the information to connect the dots for her and urged the HDC to provide the public with facts including the length of time it took to undertake, new detailed planning and design, when new design consultants were hired, when new tenders issued and when was the new revised completion date reached.

Prime Minister Rowley said he was referring to then Housing Minister, Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde.

Meanwhile Mrs. Dick-Forde said she fully supports Mrs. Manning’s defence of the former Prime Minister.

She said she was not sure how to comment on such a far-fetched accusation involving what she described as one of the most badly planned and poorly implemented projects given to the housing portfolio in 2007.