By Alex Yomah
The National Patriotic Party (NPP) Secretary General, Andrew Peters, says NPP partisans in Bong County will vote for Senator Henry Yallah as he is the Coalition’s candidate. Mr. Peters’s statement on OK FM yesterday was triggered by the Standard Bearer of the Party, Jewel Howard Taylor’s, recent disinclination to accept the Coalition for Democratic Change’s (CDC) endorsed candidate in Bong County.
Though Vice President Taylor neither endorsed nor objected to Senator Yallah reelection, she urged her kinsmen to go all out and vote anyone of their choice.
It can be recalled of late, Vice President Howard-Taylor has consistently said on audio that she will not support Henry Yallah in any given election.
Vice President Taylor’s statement was corroborated by NPP’s Vice Chairperson’s, George Mulbah, who was recently appointed as campaign Chairperson for Senator Yallah’s campaign team in Bong County but was rejected.
“NPP does not rely on one person to bankroll our party or control our party. We are clear on our position that the Standard Bearer’s statement is her personal statement and does not reflect NPP’s views. The NPP will support the Coalition’s candidate in Bong County,” Peters said.
Meanwhile, amid the internal wrangling within the NPP, Peters has disclosed that something went wrong within the party that is incubating in the public.
Speaking on varieties of issues affecting the NPP, Secretary General Peters disclosed that the Coalition is wrongly blemished of being linked to the NPP quagmire, noting that the party’s internal fight is due to Vice President Howard-Taylor’s failure to reportedly accept her wrongs.
He said that is tearing the party apart and is making the NPP a laughing stock in the current political arrangement, all because leaders of the NPP put their personal feelings in political decisions, which Mr. Peters said is wrong.
Mr. Peters disclosed further that something went wrong after the induction of the CDC leadership but unfortunately, there are some people who do not know the history, blame the entire CDC of meddling into NPP’s internal affairs.
“When we won the elections in 2017 and leaders of our party decided to put personal interests over the partisan’s interests. I tell you, there was no Executive Committee to make recommendations, rather, our leaders, Standard Bearer decided to use her constitutional authority, because under the function of our arrangement, a political party’s Standard Bearer makes recommendations,” Peters stated.
The NPP SG narrated that aggrieved partisans blamed the Chairman and he admitted and vowed not to repeat what was done but accused the party’s Standard Bearer of not accepting her wrong and for her to reconcile with partisans so as to move the party forward but rather, pretends to take the party as her personal investment; that is the issue some partisans have with her.
‘Immediately, after the induction of our government, partisans of the NPP began hearing strange names from NPP’s recommendation who they claimed were never around to help the party. For instance, current Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Health, the Vice President’s biological sister, another Deputy Minister for Administration at Labour, the late IAA Boss Emmanuel B. Nyeawea, former Agriculture Minister Dr. Moses Morgana, and others,” Peters explained.
Peters said partisans of the NPP were disenchanted and raised grave concern with questions like “what is going on; how will NPP win an election while hearing that people who were not with us have their names surfacing under NPP’s recommendations?”
In response to Mr. Peters assertions about rejecting Mulbah Morlu’s appointment to serve as Chairperson for Yallah’s campaign team, he said contrary to what the NPP SG said, he told Morlu that he could not vote CDC’s candidate because, one; he is the one who encouraged Deputy Speaker, Prince Moye to join the race and two; he said Sen. Yallah introduced a bill at the Liberian senate to divide Bong County.
Besides that, former Representative Mulbah indicated that CDC reportedly disrespected NPP leadership in selecting Senator Yallah as the governance party preferred candidate, noting that he’s one of the stakeholder’s in Bong County.