Internal bickering has intensified within the National Patriotic Party (NPP) as two factions of the former ruling parties have are at each other’s throat over alleged breach of the party’s constitution.
Two press releases have hit the public with each contradicting the other.
One of the releases is announcing the suspension of the party’s chairman, Senator James Biney, while the other is announcing the suspension of the standard bearer, Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor.
In the one dated March 4, 2023, the National Executive Committee of the National Patriotic Party (NPP) suspends with immediate effect, its National Chairman, Senator James P. Biney.
He’s being suspended for acts “incompatible” with his status as National Chairman, including his failure to honor the instruction of two thirds (2/3) majority of the NEC by not signing the Coalition Framework Document authorized by the Executive Committee.
“The decision was reached on March 4, 2023, at a called National Executive Committee meeting in which 2/3 membership of the National Executive Committee signing the resolution.
“The refusal of Senator Biney to sign the Coalition Framework Document after being mandated by 2/3 majority members of the NEC of the Party violates section 8.7 (a) & (e) of the 2004 Constitution.”
The release ordered Chairman Biney to submit himself to the Grievance and Ethics Committee in three working days to show cause for his acts of “insubordination and disrespect” to the National Executive Committee, failure to do so, he shall be considered automatically expelled.
At the same time of this news, the National Executive Committee has mandated Hon. George S. Mulbah, Vice Chairman for Administration to steer the affairs of the NPP, pending the outcome of an investigation.
In another release issued Sunday evening, March 5, and signed by James Biney, Chairman, Alexander O. Shannon, Asst. Secretary, and Charlyne A. Taylor, Vice Chair for inter-party Affairs, of the James Biney faction of the Party, and in consultation with the National Executive Committee, the party has suspended both partisans George Mulbah and Madam Jewel Howard Taylor, for what the Biney release terms as ‘convening an illegal and unconstitutional gathering in the name of the NPP National Executive Committee with claims that it has suspended the duly elected Chairman of the party.
The release also notes that the action by the pair constitutes a breach of the NPP constitution and represents defiance of the ruling of the Honorable Supreme Court.
The NPP-James Biney release said, Article 5, section 1 of the NPP constitution provides that all National Executive Committee meetings and National Convention are called and presided over by the National Chairman.
The Biney release further stated that Article 5, Sec. 6, provides that all citations for meeting duly authorized are issued by the Secretary General of the party, which were grossly violated by Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor and partisan George A. Mulbah.
“None of these constitutional requirements were obtained to qualify the meeting as being an NEC meeting,” the release said.
“Madam Taylor’s past scripts of convening what she referred to as NPP National Executive Committee meetings were prohibited by the Honorable Supreme Court,” it furthered.
The court also ruled that all NEC meetings of the NPP conducted outside of the Constitutional process and procedures laid down in the party’s constitution were illegal, unconstitutional, and illegitimate and decisions therefrom are illegal and reversible.”
“We call on all our partisans around the country and abroad NOT to give credence to her purported NEC meeting convened at her office, near the German Embassy in Monrovia, and the so-called suspension of the duly elected and bonafide chairman of the party. We also call on the general public, political parties, and the National Elections Commission not to do business with these two persons in the name of the Party as their action in defiance of the Supreme Court’s ruling will render any subsequent dealing with them illegally”.
“Any would-be candidate of the party who gets his or her registration papers to participate in the 2023 elections signed by partisan George A. Mulbah still has such registration legally challenged and will have himself or herself to blame.” The NPP-James Biney faction press release concludes.”
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