Monrovia – The former Chairman of the All Liberian Party (ALP) Emmanuel Lomax might be less than a week an official member of the Liberty Party (LP), but he has begun reveling in his party party’s chances in 2017, as well as committing to play a role that victory.
“Liberians must know that I am a huge asset, and not liability,” Lomax told FrontPage Africa in an exclusive interview.
“Many people don’t know me because of their baseless efforts they raised,” Lomax averred.
He said he joined the Liberty Party to ensure that the party wins the presidency in 201 and had no regrets for dumping the ALP for the LP.
“Let me tell you my fellow citizens, I have no regrets leaving Benoni Urey’s ALP.
“Why will I be in a party where one person decides on everything? He asked rhetorically.
“I will teach Urey lesson 2017, so I joined the LP to assist like I did in the ALP.”
The recent defection of Emmanuel Lomax, former chairman of the All Liberian Party, to the Liberty Party is brewing feud between the two parties.
Recently in Bong County, citizens from the 15 administrative districts of Bong said Lomax’s defection was timely, and vowed to actualize their loyalty to Lomax by joining the party.
But on a local radio, Lomax political parties wanted him over, but he was glad that he chose Liberty Party over all.
Lomax a former partisan of the National Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Union for Democratic Progress boasted that he always assisted parties that he had joined.
“I have assisted many parties that I have formed and Lomax doesn’t go to party for help as many term me to be,” he said.
The former ALP chair disclosed that the administration of the ALP was unilaterally run by Urey.
“Everything in the ALP is done in an autocratic style and I am a huge asset to the political landscape, so I can’t allow an individual to spoil what I believe in.
“LP didn’t rain insults. I have watched Cllr. Brumskine and he has done extremely well as a political leader. He is not irresponsible like others, their platform is what I support and I know he is Liberia’s next President,” Lomax noted.
In response, the chairman of the All Liberian Party Theodore Momo said Lomax was not a member of the All Liberian Party at the time he joined the Liberty Party.
“He is targeting our partisans, but we are not crying all over the place,” Momo said.
Momo said the recent action of the Liberty Party to happily accept Lomax showed that the Ganta Declaration had been betrayed by the Liberty Party.
“Theirs is done in broad daylight. He lashed at the ALP and others and he made mention of businesspeople running for President and we know he was referring to our political leader,” Momo said.
The ALP chairman: “The LP doesn’t see that they are operating outside the Declaration, but they cried that we are sponsoring Costa; but to be frank, we don’t have control over what Costa says.”
Committed Opposition
Mr. Momo said that as a political party who agreed to be a part of the opposition parties’ declaration to defeat the ruling party, it calls for commitment.
“We want to say that as political party we are committed to opposition parties coming together; we need true opposition because you can’t have one leg in the opposition bloc and have one leg in the ruling party block,” Momo stated.
He boasted that the ALP was a party of strength noting, “The same way they know how to fish, we know how to fish.
Currently, we have more than 21,000 registered members in Grand Bassa. Where you think they are coming from?
They are people who come from the rank and file of the Liberty Party. If you hit us, we know how to hit you; so the leaving and joining of Liberty Party by Emmanuel Lomax is not brewing feud between Cllr. Brumskine and our political leader.”
Although former Senator Mabutu Vlah Nyenpan has assumed the role of leading a joint committee foster a merger between the dozen opposition political parties that signed the Ganta Declaration, united for the single purpose of defeating the ruling Unity Party seemed to be gradually disintegrating just 48 hours after the talks were held in September.
The Liberty Party (LP) and the All Liberian Party (ALP)—both of whom are signatories to the 12-party merger—were at loggerhead as the ALP accused the LP of lying in bed with the ruling establishment for which the merger was formed to defeat in the 2017 presidential elections.
Despite being one of the biggest collaborations for merger ahead of 2017 elections, the feud between supporters of the standard bearer of ALP, Benoni Urey and Cllr. Charles W. Brumskine of the LP continued to threaten the strength of the collaboration.
First, Henry Costa, a pronounced sympathizer of Urey, taunted Cllr. Brumskine for not being trusted and a strange bedfellow.
“I regret to inform you all that the much talked-about meeting of opposition political parties in Ganta, Nimba County, was a failure,” he wrote on his Facebook page just in a day after the talks.
LP’s Secretary General, Darius Dillon, responded to Costa with a comment on the same platform:
“We are just from Ganta and committed ourselves to the Declaration. Less than 24hrs, Urey is breaching the spirit and intent thereof.
“I have posted in here several social media postings of folks from Urey’s camping clearly undermining the objective of these talks.
“Again, this morning, Urey has his surrogate Costa attacking our political leader and our party on his radio station Shaita FM 102.5.”