Heritage (Monrovia)
14 December 2011
What has been described as a split has emerged among individual members of the Legislative Caucus of Nimba County over who the Caucus should support in the upcoming legislative election for a new Speaker of the House of Representatives at the 53rd Legislative. Members of the House of Representatives are poised to go to the polls at the Capitol Building in Monrovia, on January 9, 2012, to elect a new Speaker for a 6-year term.
The Capitol Building is the seat of the Legislature.
But report gathered by this paper indicates that there is an ongoing wrangling between two newly elected Nimba County lawmakers, who have expressed their interest to contest the Speakership election.
The report, which names representatives Ricks Toweh of Nimba Country District #6 and Richard Tingban of Nimba County District # 9, maintains that the two Nimba County lawmakers’ declaration of interest for the House of Representatives top post is being greeted by mixed reactions from many of their Nimba County counterparts on the grounds that the county cannot field two candidates in the legislative race.
The other members of the Nimba County Legislative Caucus, the report adds, are of the conviction that their county should support one candidate and not two, but the point of contention is which of the two men should step aside for the other.
A member of the Nimba County Legislative Caucus, Nimba County District #5 Representative elect Samuel Kogar, says: “It is regrettable and disheartening that a county like Nimba will be in dispute with respect to the Speakership that other counties have given us the benefit of the doubt.”
Appearing on the Truth FM’s Truth Breakfast Show Tuesday, the Nimba County lawmaker lamented that it was “unfortunate and embarrassing” for fellow Caucus member, Representative elect Tingban to continue to declare intention for the Speakership after the Nimba County Legislative Caucus have met with him to concede to Representative elect Tweh.
He narrated that a recent meeting of the nine members Nimba County Legislative Caucus convened by Nimba County District #7 incumbent lawmaker, worlea-Saywah Dunah instructed both representatives Tingban and Toweh to relax their ambitions until the close of the November 8, 2011 Run-off election.
But according to him, contrary to the Caucus’ warning to the two men, Tingban allegedly went ahead to convene a meeting of newly elected representatives excluding members of the Nimba County Legislative Caucus, where he again announced his intention to contest the speakership of the House of Representatives.
Representative Kogar noted that this move on the part of Tingban did not go down well with other members of the Caucus, adding that this prompted the Caucus to hold a meeting which formally endorsed the candidacy of Tweh.
But another member of the Nimba County Legislative Caucus, Representative Dunah, who called in to the Truth Breakfast radio talk show clarified that he was never a part of any meeting of the Caucus that endorsed Toweh to vie for the Speaker post.
He disclosed that at the time of the meeting, he was out of the country on an official state function in Lome, Togo, adding that he has made his reservations about such meeting known to the conveners of the meeting.
“I made those reservations known to them yesterday; that the Nimba Caucus should have met as a collective body,” he stressed.
He stated that he is a committed executive member of the ruling Unity Party (UP), adding that because “I am an institutional man, I belong to the Unity Party, and I will stand by the decision of my party in these legislative leadership issues.”
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