Gbarnga, Bong County – Deputy House Speaker Prince Moye has been caught on tape allegedly describing Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor as someone who doesn’t like progressive young people.
Report by Selma Lomax, [email protected]
The clips, FrontPageAfrica has gathered, were made out of a meeting Moye reportedly had with some youths of Salala District at an entertainment center in Monrovia in an attempt to convince them to support his ambition for the special senatorial election slated for December 8, 2020.
In the yet-to-be authenticated clips, Moye reportedly said that the vice president doesn’t like progressive young people and she is taking Bong County as her political base.
The transcript of one of two tapes reads: “Jewel didn’t see what’s unfolding now. She never thought I could be talked by people to accept running for the senate race in Bong County. She can never support the senator (Henry Yallah) for the fact that she says the senator has been behind her strangulation and all that kind of stuffs, so, in as much she can’t support the senator (Henry Yallah), she can’t support me because she sees me progressing and she doesn’t like anyone like that,” Moye is heard.
“She doesn’t like any progressive young man. Oh! No! No! Out of nothing you will not do anything to her she will just turn against you. She doesn’t like my progressive nature in the county. She has taken Bong County as her political base and that’s why led her joining the Congress for Democratic Change in 2017”
When contacted, the national media consultant to Deputy Speaker, Mohammed Kwenah, said he couldn’t comment further and alleged FrontPage Africa’s Bong reporter was on a campaign to blackmail his boss. “Are you tired running fake stories about my boss, Lomax? Call the person the perceived leaked audio surrounds. It’s a leaked audio and you did the secret recording, so, I don’t know what it contains.”
FrontPage Africa’s reporter replied: “Point of correction, ask your boss if we ever had conversation of such as contained in the leaked audio. Anyway, thanks for your response.”
Marvin Josiah Cole, lawmaker of district three and a former staffer to Howard-Taylor, who leaked the audio during his Thursday, July 2, 2020 on the Truth Breakfast Show, said he had evidence to show that the audio was genuine.
Cole promised to release more audio clips in the event Moye denies the authenticity of the clip. Cole said: “We have more of the secretly recorded audios of Moye, saying terrible things about Senator Henrique Tokpa, former superintendent Selena Polson-Mappy. He is also heard admitting of signing tones of blank checks along with former speaker of the House of Representatives, Emmanuel Nuquay to steal during the 53rd National Legislature when he (Moye) served as chairman on Ways, Means and Finance of the House of Representatives. I am hearing that Moye wants to lie that it wasn’t his voice”
“Jewel didn’t see what’s unfolding now. She never thought I could be talked by people to accept running for the senate race in Bong County. She can never support the senator (Henry Yallah) for the fact that she says the senator has been behind her strangulation and all that kind of stuffs, so, in as much she can’t support the senator (Henry Yallah), she can’t support me because she sees me progressing and she doesn’t like anyone like that.”
– Leaked Audio Believed to be the Voice of Prince Moye, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives
Continuing, he added: “Let him do that and I will release part two of the audio clip that is more damaging than the first one. Moye has a hidden agenda for which he wants to become senator of Bong County. He doesn’t mean well for the people of Bong County because he wants to target people in the local government who are critical of him when he becomes senator of the county”
In a rare response, Howard-Taylor said Moye’s perceptions about her are untrue. She has strived in empowering more young people who have gone on to succeed, she said.
Making specific references to Cole and District Five lawmaker Edward Karfiah – both of whom served in her office as staffers during her tenure as senator of Bong – Howard-Taylor said her quest is to help young people succeed in life as is being done to Cole and Karfiah. “It is a glaring fact today that I have made many young people not just in Liberia but the entire world. I have sponsored young people who are not better leaders in Liberia. Some of the perfect examples of my quest in making young people realize their full potentials are the cases of Edward Karfiah and Marvin Cole. When I noticed that both men had ambitions to represent their people at the national legislature, I supported them from my resources and today I am very proud of them,” she said.
“I don’t think Moye has provided opportunities for his peers since his election as lawmaker in 2011. Let him name some of his friends he has helped, I will wait to listen to their names…How many persons has he made, least to mention propelling a lawmaker.”
Will Jewel support Yallah?
Talks about the vice president supporting the re-election of Senator Henry Yallah have heightened since the senator joined the Congress for Democratic Change last week. The vice president in 2018 branded Yallah ‘snake’ and called on residents of the county not to support his re-election. Howard-Taylor and Yallah have had a strained relationship since 2014 when the vice president lost the election of the senate pro-tempore by a single vote to Gbezongar Finley.
It’s alleged that Yallah supported Finley during the election.
Yallah, during his appearance on a local radio station in Bong last week craved for the vice president’s support when he offered apology. “I know the vice president has forgotten about that because we are in the same party. She’s a mother and a Christian who is forgiven. She said all those things about me because I think she was angry. I hope we can have a truce,” he said.
The vice president has remained coy on her decision on who to support despite pleas from a segment of her support base in the county to support Yallah.
Moye’s senate ambition vs greedy hunter tag
Since declaring that he will vie for this year’s senate election in the county, Moye continues to come under strong criticisms from residents of the county, with many describing him as “greedy politician”.
As a Deputy Speaker who earns a little over $ 700,000 annually, the district two lawmaker appears to be on the defensive over his decision to contest for a senate position that reportedly makes a little over $15,000.
In 2018, Moye, as one of lead campaigner for the election of Senator Henrique Tokpa during a by-election that saw as sitting lawmaker Cole contesting, condemned the decision of his colleague, stating that it was a “complete waste of resources” for a sitting lawmaker to contest why in office.
Jeremiah Wilson, a resident of Gbarnga, said it was sad for Moye to contradict himself in two years after denouncing his colleague’s ambition to contest the senate seat in 2020. Wilson pledged to campaign against Moye to ensure that he is rejected at the ballot box in December. “I am galvanizing residents of the county to ensure that what Moye preached two years ago is realized. As a lawmaker, you should be trusted for what you say,” he said.
Another resident of Gbarnga, Marcus Brown, said it was time that residents of the county unite to deny Moye at the ballot box. “I see no reason why Moye wants to become senator of the county. What does he want? He makes more money than what a senator makes. What Moye hasn’t done as deputy speaker and wants to do as senator of Bong?”