MONROVIA: In the midst of the mounting cacophony of allegations levied against him concerning his character and alleged financial misdealing with the government, the National Chairman of Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), Mr. Musa Hassan Bility, has denied the allegations, describing them as machinations to destroy his good character, especially his thriving political career. Bility accused Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon of being behind his character assassination, vowing to get back at the Senator whom he described to be “ungrateful and deceptive”.
Speaking through a podcast Friday evening, June 16, 2023, Mr. Bility laid the premise of his discussion to first dismiss the insinuation making the rounds which he blamed Senator Dillon of spreading because he (Dillon) was “limited in knowledge and the functions” as a lawmaker which led him to be on a “mission to tarnish my reputation and contradicting himself in the process”.
He said he was happy that Dillon has admitted that the Road Fund Act was signed in September 2018 under the leadership of President George Manneh Weah, after the Liberian Senate under the leadership of former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai and Former Speaker Emmanuel Nuquay, both of whom ran on the presidential ticket of the Unity Party in 2017, convinced the UP-dominated national legislature that signing into law any other additional tax would be politically naïve for the then ruling party in the 2017 election.
Bility said he was baffled that Dillon, having known the status of the Road Fund Act, will still go ahead to attempt to rope him (Bility) on something that does not exist but is intended to go after him for no reason.
“Dillon, you have a constitution that says no law shall be retroactively applied and you have admitted that the Road Fund Act was passed by the National Legislature in 2018, but then you are going to the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) to ask what has happened to the Road Fund before then.
“The constitution clothes the LRA to collect all the lawful revenue of the government through taxes, and if the LRA could not collect what you called “road fund”, then it means it was not legal.
“You may say anything against Alfreda Tamba, former Commissioner General of the LRA, but when it comes to the laws governing taxation in this country, she didn’t joke with it and there is no way you would be withholding taxes without any action taken against you”, Bility said, noting his disappointment in Senator Dillon, who over the period he has been in the Senate, is using public resources to go after him.
Mr. Bility furthered that if he (Bility) appears before the Liberian Senate, he will accord Dillon the title of a Senator but outside of that “Dillon does not deserve to be called a senator because he does not know what he is doing. “He brags around because Pro Tempore Albert Chie is using him on a Special Committee to fight me,” Bility claimed.
The CPP leader gave an insight of his obligation to the Liberian government which Dillon and others have accordingly erred in referring to as “road fund tax” just to tarnish his reputation.
Bility said he was obligated to the former government of Madam Sirleaf for which a settlement was reached at the court after he sued the same government for unjustly taxing him.
“There was something at that time called storage fees which were collected by all storage owners including myself. There was nothing like a road fund. And that was why I went to court and argued that there was no road fund tax; that these people wanted to come and illegally collect the money from me, calling it road fund tax. I reached a settlement with the government to pay and it was $4m and I have paid a substantial part of the money.
“Interestingly the LRA has reported to the Liberian Senate and even the money they said I am owing was far less than what they claim and that they were contacting the Central Bank of Liberia to verify it”, Bility said.
Speaking further, Bility said he doubted the sincerity of the Liberian senate to find out the truth about the proceeds of the road fund tax after it created a Special Committee, knowing very well that “it passed the Road Fund Act in September 2018 and it is from that day road fund became a legal tax.
“From September 2018 up to the time I am sitting here, there is no single entity in the Republic of Liberia that is owing a dime for the road fund. The government through the Liberia Revenue Authority collects the road fund on a weekly basis from every importer that sells the product. I dare anyone to show a law establishing a tax before that time”, Bility said.
Throwing Light on Dillon/LP Issues
Having provided clarity on the dangling road fund issue, Bility then turned on Dillon whom he repeatedly called ‘an ungrateful man” and an “inconsistent and unreliable person who cannot be trusted for anything”, adding that his podcast is meant to respond to the many “lies” the Montserrado County Senator has told about him. Bility furthered that this will be the beginning of the long battle that he will wage, from which Dillon will not survive.
“Dillon, you are nothing. You know how you became a senator. You know how you were even selected on the Liberty Party ticket. You won the seat two times courtesy of the opposition unity.
“When a people in anguish put aside their bitter political differences, united and elected you, then you turned around and let them down. But I will tell you that you are nothing. I made you”, Bility said.
Bility who was a key actor during the presidential pursuit of the late founder of the Liberty Party (LP), Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, said Dillon was not even in the picture to contest on the ticket of LP during the Senatorial by-election in 2019 to replace the late Senator Geraldine Doe-Sheriff, because Brumskine was opposed to Dillon whom the late founder referred to as “unreliable”, according to Bility.
The CPP Chairman said when the cards were placed before LP by the mainstream opposition parties, namely, ANC, ALP, and UP, Brumskine told him if the parties were keen on picking an LP candidate, then he would prefer Atty Kofi Woods but not Dillon. He said, however, after he (Bility) insisted and made a passionate appeal on behalf of Dillon, Brumskine reluctantly agreed but with a warning: “Let me tell you, you all will regret it”.
He said for what he has seen and experienced with Dillon since his election, the former LP presidential candidate was not wrong for opposing Dillon’s quest because virtually everything the senator promised, he reneged on them including the money he promised to be giving back to Montserrado County as well as being a huge disappointment on so many things which he (Bility) didn’t mention.
Bility said the only consolation he had from the Dillon experience was that he did not physically cast his ballot for Dillon because his (Bility’s) voting constituency has always been in Nimba County though he immensely gave more financial, material and moral support to Dillon’s campaign.
Expanding on Dillon’s “ungratefulness” and audacity to turn away from those who helped him in life, Bility said even former VP Boakai had insisted not to ever be part and parcel of any other electoral campaign on behalf of Dillon after he won the 2019 by-election.
“During the 2020 midterm senatorial I went to VP Boakai for his support on behalf of Dillon and Mr. Boakai told me, ‘Musa, I will not campaign for that Dillon boy again, he is very, very ungrateful. Since I campaigned for Dillon and he won, he has not come back to me’.
“I told Dillon Mr. Boakai is not happy with you, so I put him in my car and took him there; and if you can remember that famous photo where he was sitting on the floor before VP Boakai, it was the time; and if Mo Ali has some soul in him, he will admit that, because he was the one who took the photo. Others were there but I will not name them now, only Mo Ali I want to mention”, he said.
Bility said there were so many things Dillon has done negatively that he knows about but one particular incident that he will never forget easily was the refusal of Dillon to sign on a postcard containing encouraging wordings to keep up the spirit of Brumskine when he was sick at the time.
“Charlyne came up with an idea of a postcard to be sent to her father as a way to keep his spirit alive which we all agreed to sign. She told me that she has been calling Dillon for a long time but he was not picking her call and could not understand what was the problem.
“So, I told her I will personally take the card to Dillon for him to sign and return it so that it will be sent to Brumskine. I told her I will leave my place at Tweh Farm early in the morning to go and see Dillon.
“When I got to his house I told him, ‘The girl (Charlyne) told me she has been calling you about the postcard for her father but you are not picking your call’.
“The statement that Dillon said about Charles Brumskine that morning made my skin crawl on me; and he said ‘I will not sign it’. Some of the statements are not appropriate for his memory.
“I told him the decision to sign or not says a lot about you and it will determine whether I will support you or not and he said, ‘I will just initial it but I will not sign it’; and he said all kinds of things about Cllr. Brumskine”, Bility said.
Relating another incident where Dillon took a contrary decision from the one Brumskine had proffered, according to Bility, was during the second round of the 2017 election when the race was now narrowed between then CDC presidential candidate George Manneh Weah and Mr. Boakai and Brumskine had told his supporters to vote for CDC against UP.
Bility said Cllr. Brumskine convened a crucial leadership meeting of the party at the residence of Wadei Powell on the Congo Town Back Road which was attended by the major actors in the LP where Brumskine instructed them to support Weah against Boakai during the second round.
“Everyone was in that meeting; I mean all those who mattered in the LP at the time, when Brumskine said ‘I want to be clear. I will not approve any decision that will turn support to Joseph Boakai. I will not do that. Liberia does not deserve that. You people are young people, some of us have reached the twilight of our life.
“If you people want to go to CDC, I will give you the go ahead. But there is no way I can endorse Joseph Boakai to be President of this country because every opportunity we had to save this country, he refused everything”, Billity quotes Brumskine as saying.
He said Brumskine then set up a team made up of Ben Sanvee, Harrison Karnweay and himself (Bility) to meet the CDC to work out the modalities where a formal declaration was to be made for the CDC, but Dillon opposed the decision and said he cannot be part of it until he met Mr. Weah. He said he was taken aback about Dillon’s stance and had thought perhaps it was because Dillon was not named as part of the delegation.
“So, I told Ben, look I am not comfortable with what Dillon is saying. I didn’t have any thoughts otherwise until later on I was told by someone that a business man had promised Dillon US$25k to declare for Boakai.
“About four days later, Ben and I went to the Boulevard Hotel. At the time they had the smaller place being part of the Boulevard Hotel, and we saw Dillon sitting right there with the business man and we sent him some nasty text messages, that ‘Dillon you betrayed this party before and we hope you are not doing it for the second time”, Bility said.
A possible UP/Nyonblee collaboration?
At the end of the podcast, Bility sent out what he called a “warning” to the Standard Bearer of the Unity Party, Joseph Nyumah Boakai, stating that his affront to the Liberty Party has reached the redline and he will no longer tolerate it.
“Mr. Boakai has reached the redline, calling Nyonblee the Political Leader and he knows very well that the LP has signed on to a collaboration in the CPP.
“I heard that you signed some kind of paper with Nyonblee under the LP. If you participate in this election, let it be a lie. I have tried and am still trying to get a copy of that document which you refused to let the public know that you have a collaboration with the LP. I dare you; if you have balls, if you are a man, share the papers that you and the LP sign,” Bility challenged.
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