“Unity Party, Stop It Aye!” -Chairman Bility Warns UP to Desist Undermining CPP or else…

MONROVIA : The Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) National Chairman Musa Hassan Bility is spitting fire and brimstone over what he says is the sheer effrontery of the former ruling Unity Party (UP) to continuously undermine the CPP, following several steps that the UP took in the recent past to destabilize the Liberty Party (LP), a constituent member of the opposition CPP. Waxing mad with righteous anger, Bility warned the UP to desist from destabilizing the CPP and the Liberty Party, otherwise UP might run the risk of not appearing on the ballot box in the ensuing October 10, 2023 presidential and general elections.

According to Chairman Bility who made a blistering podcast over the weekend, his bone of contention is what he termed as the continuous connivance of the UP to collaborate with Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and raise funds for the former ruling party, even though she no longer serves any position within the Liberty Party, especially by dint of rulings reached by the Supreme Court of Liberia and the National Elections Commission of Liberia (NEC).

“I came here tonight because I intend to take actions both in the United States and in Liberia. But what is most important is that the action we are going to take will have an impact on how we are going to deal with each other as opposition. Since the creation of CPP, since the amendment of the CPP framework document, the Unity Party has taken no action whatsoever to foster peace and unity between the CPP and Unity Party. But it’s easy to attack Musa Bility and say all sorts of things. You see that we have a coalition with the Liberty Party only; you are aligned with Nyonblee to take our party logo, attach it to yours. Unity Party, if you don’t find yourself on the ballot, don’t hold me responsible. Please hold yourself responsible. What you are doing is illegal, and it will be challenged in the court of law,” Bility blasted.

Providing a background to the near-disintegration of the CPP, Bility said the feud was cooked up by the Unity Party; they did not feel that any other political leader was good enough to stand against their Standard Bearer Joseph Nyuma Boakai in a convention.

“Historically, as far as I am concerned since we started this opposition business, the Unity Party became the opposition after you lost the election in 2017. For me, the Unity Party is a former ruling party, not an opposition party. They don’t behave like one; it is shown in their actions and attitude towards other parties. It is the same reason they left the CPP because anywhere they go, they feel that they alone should be sitting down in a specific place; and they have a space that they are entitled to. All of these are having an impact on how the Unity Party operates.

“What is bothering me, and this is not an appeal to the Unity Party, for we know how to deal with them; but what is bothering me is the steps that the Unity Party has taken to destabilize the opposition, specifically the Liberty Party. We are where we are today because the Unity Party refused to appreciate the law of the land and follow it. Every step of the way they provided Dillon and Nyonblee lawyers, they refused to recognize the decision of the court and the decision of the NEC. Up till today, they refuse to recognize the CPP.

“Nyonblee as a single person cannot run a political party. Our party constitution is very clear; and the Constitution of Liberia is very clear. Let’s assume everything else is on the table, the Liberian Constitution says, somewhere between Article 78 to Article 90, that every political party must have a national convention once every six years and elect its officials. It is around that time that almost every political party constitution is developed and built. And remember, the Liberty Party constitution has a place to elect a political leader. You only become a political leader of the Liberty Party when you are first and foremost the Standard Bearer of the party. The list of officers to be elected in the Liberty Party, the political leader, is not there. There is no position called political leader that is listed where people can campaign to be elected for in the Liberty Party. That position is reserved for the standard bearer of the Liberty Party. It was meant to serve as a soft landing for the standard bearer so that when the standard bearer loses election and he or she still remains significant, then your standard bearer has to be downgraded to political leader, and you stay there until the next convention because the next convention ends your cycle.

“When we went to Gbarnga, when we passed the Liberty Party constitution, we created a transition for the political leader of the Liberty Party under the transitional term. And in that transition, we said she will serve in that position until one year to election, at which time we will elect a new standard bearer. So, from the beginning, Nyonblee’s tenure as political leader was tied to the fact that she was ending the tenure of Cllr. Brumskine. If you are ending Cllr. Brumskine’s tenure, and his tenure by the operation of our own constitution and the constitution of Liberia, ends a year before the new election, and at the time of the new election, the party decided that we are not putting up a candidate in the 2023 presidential race; and in order to consummate the position of the political leader, we amended the constitution and put there that because we were supposed to elect a new standard bearer which would have been to continue from there until the next election cycle, therefore we recognized that Nyonblee’s tenure as political leader has ended, and it’s in the constitution.

“Beyond and before that, she was suspended. She was removed from the position. So, in both cases, the law says, even if this is the case without admitting that it is, her tenure has expired. Unity Party, you spent 12 years in power, you should have raised money. You couldn’t even manage your own headquarter; when in fact, what is most important here, is that if you are the one who wants to continue, it is you in the government that should make sure what you need to continue with is secured. All of a sudden, the Liberty Party goes to court, the Liberty Party goes to the Supreme Court of Liberia. The Supreme Court in short said look, when the Liberty Party went to Gbarnga for convention and elected a new corps of officers, and amended its constitution, those two actions are legal. Officers elected out there representing the Executive Committee have the authority to make decisions as per the constitution, and if that decision, it is valid.

“Some people said that Bility and Martin fraudulently dealt with the constitution, well, go to court. That’s what the Supreme Court said. Then they also said, the argument about who should report the constitution to the NEC, the Supreme Court ruled clearly that the argument was heard and went before the NEC, for which NEC ruled on it, and there was no appeal on that ruling, and therefore, that argument has come to an end. The lawyers referred to that as “rex judicata”. It was an appealable decision that was not appealed.

“The Unity Party is full of lawyers, full of smart people, knowing exactly what the court has decided, and knowing the National Elections Commission has on its book and everything as it relates to the Farmington signing, and where we stand at the CPP, and knowing also that CPP is comprised on two political parties, the Liberty Party and the ANC; the Unity Party continues to undermine our coalition. They used Nyonblee to raise money in the name of our party both in America and in Liberia.

“We are facing an election. You have a network of former CDC officers and an indicted criminal attacking us every day. But we are the enemies of the opposition. You take our former political leader whom you yourself rejected and said she is not fit to be your running mate, who you did your political calculation and concluded that she is not worth a political race; but now she’s good enough to use her and use our party name to raise money. Unity Party, stop it aye. Don’t say I did not tell you. I have come publicly today to give you my last warning. The thing I am telling the Unity Party today, I am warning you. And if you consider it as a threat, you are probably right. Do not test our resolve. You’ve done enough. As for Nyonblee, she looked for it. She had an opportunity to do what is right,” Chairman Bility concluded furiously.

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