PYJ party divided

By Thomas Domah/Nimba County

Tension is brewing within Senator Prince Yormie Johnson’s Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) party over the Senator’s not to support President George Weah’s re-election in October.

Following Sen. Johnson’s pronouncement, an executive of his party, Wilfred Bangura, who was rewarded with a deputy ministerial post for the MDR supporting Mr. Weah’s election in 2017, defied his leader and pledged the party’s support toward the re-election of President George Weah.

Bangura, presently a deputy minister at the Ministry of Commerce made the declaration during a news conference in Monrovia, defying PYJ.

Senator Johnson told local radio stations in Nimba that he stands by his decision not to support the re-election of President Weah on grounds that he led his kinsmen to vote for Mr. Weah but the government has reneged in employing more Nimbaians, noting that instead, instead, the Weah administration is dominated people from the Southeast.

He insists that this time around, there will be no turning back on the decision not to support the CDC government re-election bid.

He boasts that former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf that he supported in 2011, employed about 26 Nimbaians to top governmental positions, including several others unlike President Weah.

PYJ also maintains that the MDR leadership will not support defying statement by Minister Wilfred Bangura, who is also Vice Chairman for Political and Governmental Affairs for the party.

Bangura had said the MDR will continue to support the re-election of President Weah, a statement that has thrown the party’s executives in disarray.

Senator Johnson, who recently turned the party over to Senator Jeremiah Koung, has told his supporters that he and Senator Koung are unanimous in their decision to halt all support to the re-election bid of President Weah because of failed promises. Editing by Jonathan Browne