MONROVIA – The Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), through its National Executive Committee (NEC), has expelled three senior executives from the party including Nimba County District # 4 Representative Gonpu Kargon and the Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Wilfred Bangura for allegedly violating several provisions of its constitution.
Minister Bangura was the National Vice Chairman for Governmental Affairs of the party. Both men were expelled along with Melvin L. Yealu, former Secretary General.
Nimba County Senators Jeremiah Koung and Prince Y. Johnson, who is affectionately known as PYJ in Liberia, are the Standard Bearer and Chairman of the Governing Council respectively of the MDR.
In a statement issued in Monrovia on Tuesday, May 16, the party claimed that the trio was expelled for violating Article 14 (a) of the MDR Constitution.
Article 14 (a) of the MDR Constitution states that: “No registered member of this party shall owe loyalty to another party or cause another member to pledge allegiance to another party. If any member of this party is found in supporting any party in any form or cause another partisan to pledge support to another party shall constitute a violation and punishable as may be required by law”.
It recalled that the party, through its Chairman Counselor Cooper Kruah sometimes ago appointed a Board of Inquiry to hear allegations of constitutional Violations by Representative Kargon, Bangura, and Yealu.
In January this year, Senator Johnson announced to the world, through the Voice of America that he has terminated an agreement he signed to support President Weah due to the failure of the Liberian leader and his government to benefit the citizens of Nimba County since he ascended to the presidency.
Senator Johnson further disclosed that he is holding talks with other opposition political parties for a collaboration-a move that secured the running mate position of his party’s Standard Bearer with the opposition Unity Party (UP).
“What we expected in the past is not what we see on the ground, we had believed that being the World Best, European Best, African Best, all the best, with his election, he would have attracted investors to Liberia to create jobs and alleviate the suffering on our people through their investments, but since his election, the world has abandoned us in the sense that no investors are coming. And what we are doing in the country is just ratifying loan agreements and you cannot build the country based on loans,” Sen. Johnson said at the time.
Sen. Johnson claimed that a delegation from the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) comprising the former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Nathaniel McGill, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dee-Maxwell Kemayah, Maritime Commissioner, Lenn Eugene Nagbe, and the Minister of Finance, Samuel Tweah, paid him a visit to request him to reconsider his decision but, according to him, he turned them down.
