Did PYJ Embezzle US$27,000?

PARTY EXECUTIVES CRAFT RESOLUTION TO OUST PYJ AHEAD OF MUCH ANTICIPATED ELECTIONS….

David B. Kolleh, david.kolleh@frontpageafricaonline.com, (231 631 0032)

A faction of the National Union for Democratic Progress (NUDP) executives, headed by Chairman Emmanuel Lomax say, they are creating a document expressing  a vote of no-confidence in Senator Prince Y. Johnson as the party’s standard bearer in this year’s general and presidential elections. Johnson is accused of embezzling over US$27,000 and other administrative malpractices.

The Chairman of NUDP told this paper that Senator Johnson has misapplied over US$27,000 of the party’s money and failed to provide explanation regarding the whereabouts of the money.

This action on the part of the Nimba County Senior Senator Lomax says has placed most executive committee members in doubt about of his ability to take the party to elections.  

The Chairman of the NUDP said their decision to cast the vote of no confidence in the senator is due to financial improprieties, the single-handed steering of the party affairs and a clever attempt by the Senator to turn the party into a tribal affair.   

Lomax has been at the center of controversy over the last three days, and was subsequently asked to leave the party for what the Johnson’s faction referred to as “an act of creating confusion within the party”. Lomax told FrontPageAfrica in a mobile phone conversation on Monday that he still remains the legitimate Chairman of the party.

“I am on my way to a meeting where I am expected to meet with all of the executive committee members from across the Country on Robert’s Field Highway, where we will be drafting a resolution expressing a vote of no-confidence in this brother,” Lomax told FPA.

According to Lomax, Senator Johnson has made no meaningful contribution to the party since the time of its establishment, but has rather been in the business of creating division in the party and squandering the party’s money.

“What we are going to be demanding is an audit of monies that have been expended. Because the Senator appointed a treasurer from his office and they are just spending the money as if it is his personal money. He has also been using the party’s money on his personal projects; this should not be the case,” Lomax further said.

Lomax claims that the decision by the Senator and people he claims are his friends and relatives in the party, asking him to resign as Chairman of the party was due to his quest to know the whereabouts of the party’s money.

“After I decided as chairman to ask him to give account of the money, he put a few Monrovia-based partisans together, not constituting the full executive committee membership from across the 15 counties, calling for my resignation, which of course I will not heed to for one second. It takes two-third of the party’s   executive committee membership, which constitute the full mandate and power of the party to make such decision, not a Monrovia-based group or an individual that has not even been endorsed by the party as standard bearer, to the extent that the Senator’s personal aide, one Moses, was even a part of that decision,” Lomax said of the Senator’s embezzlement charges.

                                      Total Nonsense

When contacted via Mobile phone on Monday evening, Senator Johnson termed Mr. Lomax’s allegation as “total rubbish and nonsense.”   

“I don’t handle party’s money. It is the party’s financial department that does that. Besides, I am not supposed to make any report to Lomax. I am under obligation to respect only the executive committee and not Lomax. If he is saying today that he will not respect the executive Committee to suspend him then he is asking for more trouble,” Senator Johnson said.

The Nimba County lawmaker said it is irrational for Lomax to claim that those who took the decision against him were Monrovia-based, when in fact he had for more than one year three months worked with the same people as executive committee members.

“When the party was being established, it was me who introduced Lomax to these same people as executive committee: Bedell Fahn, George Korkor, Moses Ziah, Abednego and the rest of the other people. Besides, I don’t want you to listen to Lomax because he currently serving his suspension, all the issues he’s now making is belated. I don’t handle money matters, it is the financial department of the party that does that,” Senator Johnson said in response to the allegation from an executive of his party.