Monrovia-Liberia’s Opposition Liberty Party has denied widespread rumors concerning a possible collaboration between Vice President Joseph N. Boakai and the party’s political leader, Cllr. Charles W. Brumskine for the ensuing 2017 general and presidential elections.
“That information that is going all around the country is total rubbish and I don’t even want to give credence to it”, Abraham Darius Dillon, Assistant Secretary of the opposition Liberty Party stressed during a call on the Costa Morning Show Monday.
Vice President Boakai is aspiring for the presidency and has already been petitioned by his kinsmen in Lofa County, to contest the race and Cllr. Brumskine recently announced that he will be contesting the presidency.
Rumors have been circulating that the Vice President and presidential hopeful is seeking a running mate from a vote rich county aimed at boosting his bid for the nation’s highest seat with prominent names including Cllr. Brumskine surfacing.
Speculations have heightened in recent weeks of a possible merger between Cllr. Brumskine Vice President Boakai.
Amid these claims, the Liberty Party Deputy Secretary General for Communication, Dillon told a local media Monday, that Cllr. Brumskine can in no way go as a running mate to Vice President Boakai.
Dillon termed widespread rumors of a closed-door negotiation with VP Boakai as rubbish and one that has the tendency to undermine the integrity of the opposition Liberty Party.
“The information that the political leader of the Liberty Party is having talks with the Vice President to go as running mate is a total rubbish. There can be no way that
Cllr. Brumskine will go running mate to Joseph Boakai, no one should ever think about that. Don’t ever think about it”, Dillon stressed.
Speaking in his capacity as the Deputy Secretary General of the Liberty Party, Dillon clarified that his party is not aware of a negotiation.
“We are saying and continue to say that Cllr. Brumskine will contest the 2017 Liberian Presidency and is a formidable force. If he will engage in any collaboration, then he will take the presidential role rather than going as a running mate”, Dillon intoned.
Since President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf statement that it will be difficult for a single political party to win the 2017 presidency, there had been negotiation by the opposition bloc, with Cllr. Brumskine pledging to bring the opposition community around the table to form a strong force to fight the incumbent.
In one of his statements, the Liberty Party political leader noted that he has never made any negotiation with the ruling unity party in his quest to form collaboration aimed at unseating the current leadership.
At the same time, it has also been reported that the VP is considering the Congress for Democratic Change Political Leader, George Weah as a possible running mate, a negotiation that had reportedly being ongoing by some senators at the Liberian Legislature.
The Boakai-Brumskine collaboration has reportedly been associated with the Liberty Party steward popularity with the Bassa ethnic group which VP Boakai can use to easily ascend to the Liberian Presidency with Grand Bassa and Rivercess Counties seen as strongholds, but Dillon said his political leader has all it takes to win the Liberian presidency.
According to him, the current leadership has failed to deliver the necessity to Liberians as such, cannot be supported for another term.
Dillon maintained that only a change in leadership can provide the desire need for Liberians, stating that an attempt for Cllr. Brumskine to go as running mate to VP Boakai will keep Liberia in its current underprivileged state.
Willie N. Tokpah/0777039231/0888140438/ [email protected]