The Chairman emeritus and Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Patriotic Party (NPP), Chief Cyril Allen calls on all sides of the confusion in the National Patriotic Party to return to status quo and pointed out that both Biney and Gray sides are proceeding wrongly.
In a talk Show interview on OK FM last Monday, Chief Allen said the expulsion of NPP Chairman James Biney and the subsequent expulsion of the party’s Standard Bearer Jewel Howard Taylor and senior partisan John Gray were both without mandate any of the party, indicating that both groups are proceeding wrongly.
“The NPP must return to status quo,” Mr. Allen said as he distanced himself from what he described as recklessness in the party bordering on self-aggrandizement.
The former and founding chairman of the NPP told the station, “I do not recognize the expulsion of the Standard Bearer of the party and that of the Party Chairman James Biney”, saying that all of the things that are happening in the party are for self-aggrandizement. He urged them to stop using the institution in this manner.
Mr. Allen asserted that that the NPP is an institution that they are all attached to politically, and urged members of the party to ensure that they go back to status quo and move the party forward.
Further addressing the situation, Mr. Allen called on both sides to keep the party together and called for peaceful resolution of the crisis within party for the sake of peace.
Asked on the resolution calling on the CDC government to remove Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor and others from their positions, Allen indicated that there was nothing like slots given to any of the three member-parties of the coalition arrangement, saying that it was within the wisdom of the Standard Bearer, Ambassador George Weah that Jewel Howard Taylor was selected as his running-mate and she eventually become the VP of Liberia.
He then called on the youth of the party to conduct themselves civilly; saying that the youth should not support the stewardship that will plunge the party into crisis. “It is a political process that the NPP is part of under the coalition which is the ruling party now’ so why are we acting now as opposition?” Mr. Allen asked.
Meanwhile, an executive member of the Party, Eric Kennedy, who called on the radio station, commended Mr. Allen for the manner in which he approached the issue on the radio.
Few weeks ago, the National Executive Committee of NPP led by Chairman John Gray alarmed that there were some hidden hands behind the unending crisis in the NPP, and that their intent was to undermine the authority and influence of the Standard Bearer of the party, Jewel Howard Taylor, who is also the vice President of Liberia.
The NPP at its day long Extraordinary Session in Bentol city, Montserrado County, under the authority of embattled Chairman Biney reportedly incited partisans to vote for the expulsion of Madam Jewel Howard Taylor and Acting Chairman John Gray.
Expelled National Patriotic Party Chairman Biney and a band of his followers, it was reported, has counter-expelled NPP Standard Bearer and Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor along with former Liberia’s Vice President John Gray, who was recently appointed to act as Chairman of the party under the National Congress of the party.
The Biney group claimed that their action is based on their adversaries’ alleged ‘grossly violating the party’s constitution’ and for bringing the party to what they called “public dispute.”
According to the Biney side of the NPP faction, expelled the two because they had allegedly gone against the party’s constitution and tried to bring division within the NPP and by extension the governing Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).