Confusion In Charles Taylor’s Political Party
In Liberia
By: Charles Crawford
The Inquirer
Monrovia, Liberia
Distributed by
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
Posted October 17, 2003
There seems to be bickering and confusion within the former ruling National
Patriotic Party (NPP) regarding the filling of slots in the newly inducted
National Transitional Government of Liberia(NTGL).
According to reports, some NPP partisans calling themselves "Concerned
NPP Partisans", have accused the party’s standard bearer, former
president Moses Blah of nominating unqualified individuals to fill Cabinet
slots allotted to the former NPP-led government under the Accra peace Accord.
Others are said to be pointing fingers at the party’s national chairman,
Cyril Allen, whom they claim has sold slots to individuals they considered
as non-partisans thus not qualified.
Speaking to The INQUIRER yesterday, the Concerned NPP Partisans said the nomination
process of unqualified individuals to fill the former GOL cabinet slots in
the NTGL has the propensity totally divide the party.
Mr. Edmund Gibson, Jr., spokesman of the group, explained that a forth-night
ago, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party met ex-president
Moses Z. Blah to select names of qualified partisans to fill the slots allotted
to the former GOL.
Mr. Gibson, who is also the NPP vice chairman for mobilization in River Gee
County, said that after the selection process, the list was sent to then president
Blah for onward transmission to ECOWAS.
He disclosed that surprisingly to the NEC members, names that were not on
the list were "unscrupulously" inserted by non-partisans who worked
in former president Blah’s office, thereby replacing those names that
were agreed upon by the NEC.
Providing what he called a cogent evidence to this paper, Mr. Gibson said
"a former special assistant to then president Blah, whose name was not
on the original list for a ministerial position is said to have replaced the
incumbent.
According to him, based on these facts, the Concerned NPP Partisans were calling
upon the party’s National Chairman Cyril Allen and Secretary General
John F. Whitfield to immediately intervene by halting the nomination process,
as anything short of this may lead the party into total confusion and divided,
adding that the bulk of the NPP partisans are now disgruntled.