By: Contributing Writer
Monrovia – Scores of Unity Party officials during the weekend endorsed Nimba County Senatorial Candidate Representative Samuel Kogar.
UP officials in attendance included the party’s Secretary General Amos Tweh, Executive Member Mohamed Ali, Chairman Luther Tarpeh among others. Vice President Jeremiah Koung was also present.
The party officials present at the gathering or endorsement in Nimba County over the weekend are all appointed officials of the current Unity Party government.
It is widely believed that the action of the appointed officials is in clear violation of the Code of Conduct.
Section 5.1 of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials and employees of government expressly states that “All officials appointed by the President of the Republic of Liberia shall not engage into political activities, canvass, or contest for elected offices.”
But Unity Party Secretary General Amos Tweh argued that they were in no violation of the Code of Conduct and that they have the right guaranteed by the constitution to participate in political activities.
According to Mr. Tweh, the UP officials did the endorsement over the weekend, which is not normal government working hours and that they did not use government vehicles either to travel to Nimba County.
“We are Liberians. We have our inalienable rights protected under the constitution of Liberia to associate, to vote, to canvas and so on. What we did not do is to run a campaign on weekdays.”
“The law is very clear, you cannot use government time and property to run a campaign. So we went to Ganta to convey the decision of the National Executive Committee of our party and the collective decision of the Unity Party Alliance to the candidate that the UP and its alliance support.” Tweh said.
“We did not go there on government time; we did not use government resources. We went there with our private vehicles from the National Executive Committee of the Unity Party.
CMC Complains UP Officials to Ombudsman
Meanwhile, the new political party, Citizens Movement for Change (CMC) has filed an official complaint against the senior officials of the Unity Party who had gone to Nimba County to endorse senatorial candidate Samuel Kogar.
In their letter of complaint, the CMC accused the UP top officials who are also presidential appointees of blatantly violating the Code of Conduct which ban appointed officials from participating in political activities.
The CMC strongly condemned the action of the officials holding presidential appointments and called on the office of the Ombudsman to investigate them.
“We trust your office’s commitment to upholding the rule of law and assuring that public officials are held to the highest accountability standards, regardless of political affiliation or status.” The CMC statement said.
