Serious tension is said to be brewing in the All Liberians Coalition Party (ALCOP) ahead of its planned convention slated for May 29, in Gbarnga, Bong County.
Party sources have hinted that there could be a possible standoff at ALCOP’s pending convention owing to the lackadaisical approach of the party’s Chairperson, Ansu Dulleh, who is said to have taken some unilateral decisions against the vast majority of party stalwarts.
Speaking on anonymity, a party’s source indicated that there are several unresolved issues within ALCOP which according to the source have been intentionally overlooked by the current chairperson because of his vested political interest, which they claimed, runs contrary to the broad-based partisans’ interest.
It was further alleged that Chairman Dulleh had made frantic efforts and other unscrupulous arrangements to thwart the political direction of the party by breeding plans to take the party into an unacceptable and misguided political marriage.
According to our inside source, this has prompted internal mixed reactions from some disenchanted partisans who have accused Chairman Dulleh of deliberately downplaying their disagreement on matters of importance within the party and what is even gathered, is that, the brewing contention could lead to a possible alteration of the May 29 Gbarnga’s Convention.
In November 2019, ALCOP was engulfed in what was characterized as a leadership crisis that dragged the party before the National Elections Commission (NEC) when a group of disenchanted partisans of ALCOP through a petition to then Chairperson of the NEC, Jerome Korkoya, pleaded to nullify and set aside results of the unconstitutional and unacceptable mini-convention held on October 5, 2019 in Monrovia.
The petition, officially signed by ALCOP’s National Vice Chairperson for Political Affairs, Jerry Yarkpah, indicated that the convention was held in contravention of the party’s constitution and by-law while at the same time claimed that the processes leading to the convention was stage-managed by the Acting Chairperson Dulleh, as a means of perpetuating himself in power at the detriment of majority of the national executive council members and the general partisans.
However, when contacted, ALCOP’s National Chairperson expressed that he is not aware of any tension brewing in the party adding, “That is news to me. Maybe there are some people who are not happy in the party, especially those who got their own unscrupulous agenda.”
“The convention is set and everything is in gear to be executed,” Chairman Dulleh assured.
ALCOP was established by Prof. Alhaji G.V. Kromah in 1997 with predominantly Mandingo supporters; in 1997, the party’s founding father and presidential candidate, Kromah, won 4.02% of the votes and the party won 3 out of the then 64 seats in the House of Representatives and 2 out of the 26 seats in the Senate. Writes D. Webster Cassell