Foya District, Lofa County – William Tamba Kamba’s defection to the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) was cancelled Tuesday, August 24, after the Lofa County chapter of the party struggled to gather the crowd on the same day residents of Foya District had planned to welcome home Senator-elect Brownie Samukai.
The Lofa County Superintendent, formerly of the Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVE), had promised to gather more than three thousand people to send a statement of his influence in Foya District, but his expectations were not met as thousands of Foya residents thronged the main streets to welcome their Senator-elect.
Executives and partisans of the CDC gathered as early as 8am Tuesday, but as Samukai approached the entrance of Foya residents left the CDC party headquarters to gather to receive the former defense minister.
As they marched, Samukai supporters chanted “no Samukai, no Foya, no Lofa County”, “we will raise the money”, “Lofa County belongs to the CPP”.
The cheering Samukai supporters also held signs which read “stop the political intimidation”, “welcome home, our senator” and “Lofa County is underrepresented at the Senate because of the political suppression” greeted Samukai at the Square as he arrived in Foya.
Augustine Tamba, supporter of Samukai, told FrontPageAfrica: “The voice of the people is the voice of God. Samukai was overwhelmingly elected during the December 8, 2020 Senatorial elections as the next senator of Lofa County. I see no reason why the Supreme Court will still be playing politics with the people of Lofa County.”
For Francis Nyumalin, lawmaker of Lofa’s District One, the huge turnout of residents of Foya District to welcome their Senator-elect was a demonstration of their love and commitment to the
Samukai said he was not deterred by the legal hurdles at the Supreme Court that have denied him from from representing his people at the Liberian Senate. He told those gathered to welcome him: I just want to let my people know that I, Brownie J. Samukai will be your senator even if takes one year. The money? Don’t worry, I will restitute my share of the amount”.
Samukai received the most votes in the December 8, 2020 Special Senatorial elections. Of the 11 candidates, Samukai received 20, 431 votes, followed by Independent candidate Cllr. Joseph Jallah with 13, 968 votes.
Samukai has received mixed rulings with the Supreme Court since he won the seat in Lofa County.
CDC’s quest to ‘claim’ Lofa
Lofa County has long been the political stronghold of the Unity Party with no political party able to match the UP in all the post war presidential elections results in the county.
During the 2017 presidential elections, Lofa was the only county Unity Party won overwhelmingly both during the first and second rounds of polling.
Since the inauguration of President George M. Weah, officials of the CDC from Lofa County have in recent months made all efforts of ‘claiming’ Lofa County from the Unity Party.
Mayor of Monrovia Jefferson Koijee, Montserrado County lawmaker, Thomas P. Fallah, who all hail from Lofa County have been mobilizing to ensure that the CDC gets a stronghold of the county before the next general and presidential elections.
President Weah himself made known his desire to ensure that the CDC recalibrate in Lofa County as during the nationwide tour he made a number of promises to the people of Lofa and even got rousing welcome with some Lofa lawmakers including Julee Wiah joining the CDC.
The efforts by officials of CDC have yielded some results with massive crossover of senior partisans of the Unity Party in Lofa County from the Unity Party and joining the CDC.