KAKATA, Margibi County – Margibi County senatorial aspirant Rev. Alexander B. Collins has accepted the request from aggrieved members of the former ruling Unity Party and other organizations in the county to contest as an independent candidate in the Midterm Senatorial Elections.
The aggrieved UP partisans and a group under the banner Forward Margibi 2020 along with the Margibi religious community jointly presenting the petition statement said their plead to Rev. Collins to contest the senatorial race in Margibi County was triggered by the Unity Party’s refusal to conduct primary in the county.
The groups asserted that it was undemocratic and unfair for the party’s national executive committee to deny Rev. Collins despite being a staunch member of the party the chance to compete in a primary for the party’s slot against his challenger Rep. Ben A. Fofana.
Presenting the joint petition statement on behalf of the groups on Sunday, September 13, in Kakata, Margibi County, Joshua D.M. Sumo, Jr. intimated that Rev. Alexander B. Collins who is campaigning on the mantra of integrity, honesty and creditability would had been the best suited candidate for the party and by extension the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP).
“We are angry because they refused to conduct primary and that is why we have come to join Rev. Alexander Collins in this fight together. We want to remind you Rev. Collins that whether you run on a part ticket or as an independent candidate, the voters will vote their conscience,” he said.
Sumo, however, implored the people of Margibi County to support the candidacy of Rev. Collins because of his proven record of integrity and ability to provide adequate representation for the County.
Responding, Rev. Collins said: “I feel the sense of injustice and I will say that boldly. In 2017, I was one of those rising money in Washington, D.C. for the party and have been a committed member of the party for the last 10 years.
In a somewhat furious tone, he said he just needed the chance to compete in the party’s primary and not necessarily be given any form of preferential treatment, noting that he would had accepted a contrary result and support whoever emerged victorious.
“Why are they afraid? If they say I am new to the block; let’s try our political strength!” he intoned. “So, I feel not discouraged, but I feel that any party that is going to change this country that party must became with integrity and I feel the absent of integrity in this process”.
Rev. Collins: “It’s unfortunate that in our country doing the right thing is the wrong thing and doing the wrong thing is the right. I am a pastor, I am not going to shake anybody hand just because I want to run on CPP ticket because I did not come to be part of the problem. I came to be part of the solutions. If I have to bribe one or two officials just to make sure that I go to primary, I’m not going to do that”.
He maintained that this is not how Liberia is going to be fixed but on the basis of integrity because Liberia problem is largely attributed to the absent of integrity amongst its leaders.