LP Political Leader Reacts to Suspension -Says “Bility’s Action Is Null And Void”

The Political leader of the Liberty Party Senator Nyonblee Kangar-Lawrence has sharply reacted to the decision of the National Executive Committee under the leadership of Mr. Hassan Musa Bility suspending her from the position of political leader and a member of the Legislative caucus as well as other stalwarts including Senators Abraham Darius Dillon, former National Chairman Steve Zargo, Jonathan Kaipay, Representative Hans Barchue and others, terming the action as null and void that has no effect on her position as political leader and others who would have been affected.

Speaking to our reporter via mobile phone yesterday, Senator Lawrence who spoke confidently suggesting that she was not moved by the suspension, said she could not fathom the basis of the suspension because Mr. Bility knows very well that he does not have the power to suspend her or anyone in the leadership of the party without the leadership of the party where she is the head, meeting and reaching the decision.

“The suspension of everybody is nullified, it has no basis. In the first place, Musa has no authorization to suspend anybody from the party. He has no constitutional power to do so because the constitution that brought him to power has been withdrawn from NEC. He should know that, and for the fact that the constitution was withdrawn, he should not take any action.

When asked to throw light on her financial standing with the party which gave rise to her suspension according the NEC, she said as far as she was concerned and based on the arrangement in the party she was not obligated to the party because by virtue of her status in the party she cannot be narrowed down to a regular due paying member.

“When it comes to the issue of due payment, there is a financial plan, we all agreed the way people should be taxed. We all agreed that the political leader and the chairman will not be taxed because these are people we considered as sponsors in the party who from time to time make contributions to the party and we cannot quantify that. For instance when I took over as political leader of the party, we had an arrear that was almost going to $90,000, I covered in payment almost 60% of the money besides other contributions. And so we leaders make regular contributions that you cannot quantify. One of these is the recent convention that brought Musa Bility to power, I paid, Musa paid, Dillon paid, so these are the kind of contributions we make”, she explained.

Providing further explanation on due payment within the party and the wrong decision to suspend some people for non-payment of dues, Senator Lawrence said all of those lawmakers who were listed as dues defaulters are people we were placed in a special chat room as sponsors of the Liberty Party because legislators from the party were initially obligated to pay $250 as monthly dues, but it was later agreed upon that we make them sponsors of the liberty party where they pay the minimum of $500 per month. “And so people like Dillon, Zargo, and others have been paying this kind of money, like 1,000, 1,500, so these kinds of people are not regular due paying members, these are people who make substantial contributions to our party. So we don’t narrow them to regular due payers”, she said.

She challenged Mr. Bility for convening a meeting to take such a decision without regard to the mechanism within the party especially where decisions are reached after due consultation or collaboration with her as political leader of the party.

“Before you suspend people from your party you should have the entire report, and a process that will govern the decision you want to take. Musa is just the chairman of the party, he cannot act without acting in collaboration or consultation with the political leader and you sit in a meeting with a few EC members and make a decision to suspend the whole party, including the PL which is even wrong. What makes it more difficult is Musa as Chairman of the party does not even know where we are as a party or pretending not to know”, she said.

The Grand Bassa County Senator said there have been some outstanding issues in the party for some time that needed to be resolved moving forward and said one of them was that the constitution was questioned for alteration and procedural errors for submission at the National Elections Commission (NEC). She said an investigation was concluded at Farmington where a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed and in the MOU it was agreed that two provisions in the constitution were altered which according to her were not just ordinary provisions.

“We agreed that two provisions in the constitution were altered, they were not ordinary provisions. One of the provisions took away the power of the political leader from the alteration and Musa confessed it was altered and that was how he signed the resolution”

She said the constitution which was submitted without her knowledge was withdrawn from the National Elections Commission (NEC) three weeks ago and so Mr. Bility has been acting illegally because he cannot act on the constitution that was withdrawn for which he has even written a letter to say there is a need to have a convention to resolve issues around the constitution.

Senator Lawrence also said that besides the constitution, there were some issues that arose in the aftermath of the last special national convention and the reports from the event are now within the domain of the party for which a special convention will be called to resolve some if not all of them. She said the party will meet at the end of the week to take some far reaching decisions on some of the burning issues within the party.

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