Monrovia – Mr. Abraham Darius Dillon, a candidate in the race for the seat of the Montserrado County senatorial by-elections, Saturday, July 13, launched his campaign with a promise to voters in the county that he won’t disappoint them should they elect him as their senator.
The vacancy in the county’s senate post came about as a result of the passing of former Senator Geraldine Doe-Sheriff, who died in Accra, Ghana, after a protracted illness.
Dillon, originally a Liberty Party (LP) partisan, represents the four collaborating opposition political parties — LP, Unity Party, All Liberian Party and Alternative National Congress — in the pending Senatorial by-election in Montserrado.
On Saturday, at his campaign rally, held in the compound of the Unity Party, he promised his supporters that if elected as Senator, he would work with other senators to reduce salary of lawmakers to a fixed amount of US$5,000 as take-home pay.
At the moment, the salary of lawmakers, including the senators, is not an open secret to the public. There are reports that the take-home for senators is in the tune of US$12,000 or 15,000 or 17,000. Whatever the case, those figures are twice or thrice what Dillon has promised voters that he would lobby his colleagues to accept.
“Let me make a commitment to you; it is not only that I am going to fight not to fail you, but I will fight to change thing to give hope to our people that all is not lost. We want to show the ruling party what is meant by ‘hope for change or change for hope’,” Dillon said.
He also placed an open challenge to President George Weah and the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), to withdraw the candidacy of Mr. Abu Kamara, who is on their party’s ticket for the pending representative by-election in the same county. The representative by-election is intended to replace the late District #15 Representative, the late Adolph Lawrence, who passed few months ago.
Dillon’s call is in connection with a leaked corruption report from the Liberia’s Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) report, in which Kamara is being implicated.
In the leaked LACC Report, the ruling party’s candidate is accused of receiving more than US$8,000 as salary from the Ministry of Transport for a period of three months after he was transferred by former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to another position at the Free Port of Monrovia.
The LACC in a press release confirmed that the leaked document is authentic and promised to launch an investigation into how their document became public when it is not meant to be.
Further doing more political promises, Dillon vowed to serve as the “light in the darkness” at the Senate if elected.
“While this economy is declining, plenty money cannot be in few people’s pocket while most of the citizens suffer. Public service is about service to people and not service to pocket.”
“I want to go to the Senate to join the few good lawmakers to fight so that when we reduce our money so that we can put that money in JFK and in education for our people.”
Dillon also alarmed over what he called ‘growing national security threats.’ According to him, the increase in the number of street kids locally referred to ‘zogos’ and promised to work with colleagues to establish a rehabilitation program that would instill skills in them and make them better citizens.
Prior to the Saturday launch of his campaign rally, the collaborative political candidate, accused the CDC administration of arm-twisting the National Elections Commission (NEC), to delay the by-elections, which was scheduled for July 8 because they (ruling party) fear defeat.
Dillon, at a news conference Wednesday, July 3, predicted that NEC would announce that the scheduled July 8th elections would have been postponed only for the ruling party to buy time for their candidates. So, it came to pass that the NEC did announce the postponement to the process. At the moment, no new date has been announced for the holding of the by-elections.