MONROVIA – FrontPageAfrica has reliably learned that the only hold to Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor’s resignation was the intervention of the Liberian Senate.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
Well-placed sources at the Senate told FrontPageAfrica that a team of Senators headed by Senator Varney Sherman of Grand Cape Mount County met with the Vice President on Monday to plead with her to rescind her decision.
Sources close to the Vice President hinted FrontPage Africa on Sunday evening that Madam Taylor was threatening to resign by midday on Monday in protest against growing and unending distrust between she and President George Manneh Weah.
The source, speaking to FrontPageAfrica late Sunday night said the Vice President made her intentions known following a late evening visit from Finance and Economic Planning Minister Samuel Tweah and Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Nathaniel McGill.
The Vice President, according to the source, expressed disappointment over the manner in which she has been disrespected by people close to the presidency, particularly in the wake of the latest accusations that she is involved in the planning of this week’s Save-the-State protest.
Vice President Taylor who was reportedly resolved to step down was subdued by her former colleagues in the Senate who assured her of working to resolve the issues of trust between she and President George Weah.
“She is fedup and was about to resign; she told us the humiliation is too much for her. Can you imagine she herself had to go to the Ministry of Finance to settle issues relating her office and she stood there for hours with no one giving her attention?
“We are making all efforts to resolve this matter, we cannot be fighting outside sources and fighting inside,” the source explained.
Madam Taylor heads the second largest constituent of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change. Her party, the National Patriotic Party (NPP) played a key role, using its strongholds to bring President Weah to the presidency.
Tension between President Weah and Vice President Taylor does not come as a surprise. But the strain resurfaced last Friday when Senator Sando B. Johnson(NPP, Bomi) made a startling revelation on the Henry Costa Morning Show during which he revealed that President George Manneh Weah had told a visiting delegation headed by the head of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Jean Claude Kassi Brou that his vice president Jewel Howard Taylor was personally involved in the organization and providing funding for the protest.
Members of the Council of Patriots also raised the issue with the ECOWAS Commission Chair.
Senator Johnson, according to a source in the meeting, indirectly told the meeting with the visiting ECOWAS delegation that the Vice President was not part of the organization of the protest.
“We are men enough and are organizing the protest on our own. So, if the President wants to destroy his VP, he can do that without implicating the COP.
We are not controlled by any external force as it is being rumored. So, yes it was raised,” the source said.
In a statement Sunday, signed by its acting Chair John D. Gray, the NPP, one of three political parties in the ruling coalition said it is troubled by the reports.
Gray said: “Over the past few days, certain national events have caused the Leadership and membership of the National Patriotic Party to become seriously concerned about unfolding events. For which we have decided to hold this press briefing, in order to provide clarity about serious Nation security matters which must not be ignored. The National Patriotic Party, a constituent member of the Coalition for Democratic Change, is troubled by rumors circulating in the public domain. These rumors, alleged that the President of the Republic of Liberia intimated to International Partners that the Standard Bearer of the NPP and Vice President of the Republic of Liberia, Her Excellency Chief Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor is the mastermind and financier of the planned June 7th protest with an aim of undermining this Government.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Special Representative of the President of the ECOWAS reacted to reports that President Weah reportedly told the visiting delegation from the regional body that his Vice President and former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf are quietly supporting the June 7, 2019 Save the State Protest.
ECOWAS: “The Office of the Special Rep. wishes to state in unequivocal terms that at no time during the official visit of H.E. Dr. Jean Claude Kassi Brou did President Weah speak to the President of the ECOWAS Commission that the former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and the Vice President Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor were supporting the planned June 7, 2019 Peaceable Assembly by the Council of Patriots.
“It is, therefore, most unfortunate and indeed, worrisome that the ECOWAS was quoted to have allegedly expressed that the former President and the vice president of Liberia were aiding the organizers of the planned June 7, 2019 Peaceable Assembly.”