Paynesville City – Abraham Samuka has been elected president of the Liberia Basketball Association after defeating Jacob Kabakole with a marginal vote of 26- 25 on Tuesday and pledged his leadership will work with integrity.
By Jaheim Tumu- [email protected]
Samuka, alongside Yanquoi Borsay, vice president for administration, Bruce Quaye, Vice president for operations, and Malcolm Josephs, Treasure, said in his victory remarks, that good has triumphed over evil.
He further extended gratitude to those who waited for the last five years to ensure that basketball would no longer be played under a turbulent atmosphere.
Said Samuka, “I can tell for putting us at this level, you know how reputable and the integrity we have. We owe it to you the stakeholders and nothing will be mismanaged under my watch.”
“I hereby say today that basketball has gained its support and basketball will bounce again in Liberia”
“We are happy that the children will go for international competitions and will be scouted and Liberia will gain her right place, he added.
The LBA has suffered turbulent times and setbacks in the last five years following its controversial elections in 2019 which ushered in a new leadership headed by president-elect Samuka when defeated incumbent president, Rufus Anderson.
Anderson claimed to be the legitimate president despite being disqualified for allegedly withdrawing money from the LBA account in the elective congress in November of 2019.
Accordingly, the money that was reportedly withdrawn after being deposited was Anderson’s registration fee to contest the presidency of the LBA.
The then LBA president, Anderson who created seem at the elective congress, left the venue with the Federation of International Basketball Association (FIBA)’s observer following his disqualification.
He argued that the money that was withdrawn was purposely intended to cover the election processes.
The FIBA’s observer, allegedly in this report, wrote that the LBA elective congress was unfair, the international body became concerned about the governance and then called for the reinstatement of Anderson who they believed was absent when the election was conducted.
This conflict led to Liberia being banned from participating in international competitions under the Samukai’s administration despite the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MYS) and the Liberia National Olympic Committee LNOC)’s recognition of his presidency.
However, following years of leadership crisis, the matter was finally settled on September 26, 2023, when FIBA’s mandate to reinstate Anderson as president for six weeks and conduct an election within said period was agreed upon by all parties in the conflicts including MYS and LNOC.
Following all of the conflicts, the dust settled on October 31, 2023, with Samukai winning the election with a marginal vote of one at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex.