MONROVIA – With less than 12 hours to the much-publicized Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) primary in Nimba County, the All Liberian Party (ALP) on Saturday evening announced the indefinite suspension of its entire Nimba County leadership which comprises over 20 persons.
The suspension letter to the leadership, a copy of which FrontPageAfrica has obtained stated their suspension is due to the level of poor leadership and coordination in the county leadership. The communication also stated that they have been involved with acts that have brought the party to public disrepute.
The ALP national leadership also announced that there will be a comprehensive investigative restructuring exercise that will facilitate the reconfirming of the Nimba County’s branch to the vision, loyalty and goals of party.
The ALP further blamed the county leadership for poorly managing Radio Sletorwah which was established as a community radio station in the county for propagating the programs, vision, policies and aspiration of the ALP.
“Unfortunately, your collective supervision and administration of the station leaves much to desire as evidenced by the fact that your leadership has failed and deliberately refused to carry out the mandate upon which the ALP established the radio station. To the contrary also, the station has been used against the party’s interest and goals,” the communication further alleged.
Clever Political Game?
The sudden suspension of the entire leadership in less than 12 hours to the conduct primary in the county is beginning to raise eyebrows among the CPP members in the county as some see it as a clever attempt to suppress the process.
The primary starts at 7AM on Sunday.
FrontPageAfrica gathered from sources within the suspended leadership of the ALP who asked for anonymity that the party’s political leader, Mr. Benoni Urey, appears to be a supporter of Madam Edith Gongloe Weh against Taa Wongbe and he is of the belief that the county leadership rather backs Wongbe.
As a result, he is trying to manipulate the process by appointing new confidants who would cast their votes for Madam Weh.
The suspended official wondered why the party did not take action on their differences in the county until hours to the primary.
However, the CPP primary guidelines clearly stipulate only members of constituent party leadership are qualified to be delegates.
On Saturday, the head of the CPP Secretariat, Mr. Aloysius Toe served a second reminder to all members of the CPP, requesting them to submit their delegate listings to the Nimba County primaries before 1PM on Saturday.
The memo stated: “So far, only the ANC has complied and submitted delegate listings consistent with the September 3, 2020 at 5:00pm deadline. The ALP, LP and UP have failed to meet this deadline without providing any reasons. The Primaries Committee is gravely concerned about this delay as it is impeding the work and progress of the committee.
“It is important that you submit your delegate listing on September 5, 2020 no later than 1:00pm to enable the Primary Committee conduct verifications and ID checks, prepare and post delegate listings for public view; and also allow candidates to interact and campaign among delegates. This practice is consistent with democratic traditions throughout world.
“Parties flagrantly flouting these rules will have their delegates face penalties either by paying US$1,000 in fines before their delegates are allowed to vote, or will be disqualified from voting.”
The winner of the primary will face the incumbent Thomas Grupee, former senator Adolphus Dolo, former superintendent David Dorr Cooper,and former representative Garrison Yealue and Representative Jeremiah Koung on December 8.
Madam Weh, a former superintendent of the county, is the only female among the five men who have expressed interest in the December 8 senatorial election.
She is a politician, social worker and mass communication practitioner and the sister of veteran human rights lawyer, Tiawan Gongloe who is the president of the Liberia National Bar Association.
This is Madam Gongloe’s second time contesting the county senatorial seat. She contested and lost to on two separate occasions to Senator Thomas Grupee in 2011 and senator Prince Yormie Johnson in 2014 respectively taking second place in all the elections.
She was recently petitioned by more than two-thousands Nimbaians to contest for the pending senatorial election.
This is Mr. Wongbe’s first political contest. He is founder of The Khana Group (TKG) which focuses on positively transforming and impacting lives through advocacy and partnerships with organizations to develop more sustainable programs that are informed by research and local cultural context.
Ten years later, TKG is a leading social impact management consulting firm with a focus on research and strategy. TKG works hand in hand with clients and serve as the last mile to communities. In Liberia, TKG is the largest management consulting and research firm. TKG also has offices in Ghana, Nigeria and the U.S and has worked in 18 countries across Africa.
Wongbe previously co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer for Penguin Technologies, a technology firm that provided communications solutions and services to corporations globally. Taa has also served as a consultant for Deloitte, McKinsey & Company, Gartner, and ThruPoint and has supported projects for many global and Fortune ranked organizations. Taa has a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). In addition to his work impacting lives, he sits on the board of a number of non-profit organizations.
Prior to the CPP primary, Mr. Wongbe took the air waves to slam the pending process as not being credible.
According to Wongbe, his allegation was based on the issue of a mandate given contenders to sign onto a document indicating that both would commit to support the other if they happen to lose the primary.