The Analyst Reporter
Source: allAfrica.com
The Chairman of the proposed National Union for Democratic Progress (NUDP), has accused some members of the County's legislative Caucus of receiving US$10,000 each as bribe.
Senator Prince Y. Johnson, barely few days after coming under heavy pressure from some of his kinsmen and the general public for not attending the nation's 163rd Independence Day's Celebration held in Nimba County, the chairman of his proposed party has hit back hard on his fellow lawmakers hailing from Nimba for acts of bribery and neglect of the welfare of their people.
Accuses Lawmakers of Tempering With County Development Fund
The Chairman of the proposed National Union for Democratic Progress (NUDP), Emmanuel Lomax, making the revelation, accused eight members of the County's legislative Caucus for receiving US$10,000 each as bribe from the US$800,000 Social Development Funds allotted by Mittal Steel for the development of the County.
Mr. Emmanuel Lomax defending Senator Prince Johnson absence from the July 26 Independence Celebration held in Nimba County, alleged that the lawmakers received the amount to prevail on their constituencies for the petitioning of president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for the second term running.
Revealing the information to reporters at the party's headquarters in Old Road , Sinkor, Mr. Lomax said the information provided is one of the main reasons for Senator Johnson's absence during the July 26 festivity.
The NUDP's Chairman in his stunning revelation narrated that the purpose of the rotation of the Independence Day's celebration was basically to have government own development programs that would impact the lives of the people, and to clearly identify projects for the country in line with the national budget which was approved by the legislature. But contrary to this, he said it was very strange to hear that a huge portion of the county's Social Development Funds were used as bribes for the Independence Day program.
He added that Senator Johnson vehemently opposed the usage of the social development funds in such a clandestine and cruel manner, and said it was unfair to use the money that were already earmarked for the purpose of executing projects.
He said the funds were not meant to be used for the Independence Day celebration but for Development of the county, and added that the County Development Funds (CDF) should have squarely gone to other programs outside of the Independence Anniversary festival.
"This is why they are parading the country making noise and challenging Senator Johnson bid for the presidency and other issues. What they needed to addressed is what portion of the national cake was set aside for this celebration, nobody wants to address it because of the inducement" he narrated.
Mr. Lomax also vowed to expose the lawmakers whom he said were not in the interest of the people of Nimba, but were bent on parading and spreading lies and all sorts of negative propaganda against the senator.
"We are going to expose them to the people of Nimba County and let the people know that indeed they were not working in the interest, but rather receiving bribes to circumvent what should have been the fair share for the people" he promised.
Asked as to how he thinks the alleged bribe was acquired, Mr. Lomax responded in a rather rhetorical tone and had the following to say " We need to be mindful about writing resolutions and nurturing our fragile democracy because leaders normally have their own way of giving huge sum of moneys for people to write resolutions and this is exactly what transpired in Sanniquellie" the NUDP's Chairman claimed.
When contacted at his Capitol Hill office on the allegation, District #3 Representative Worlen Saywah Dunah, could neither confirm nor deny but had these few remarks to make "I always told those Lawmakers that we should not use the funds without any budgetary allocation because doing so in my view will not do justice to the people" he said.
Rep. Dunah however agreed that some of the money was used for the Independence celebration and the temporary electrification of the County, pointing out that Senator Johnson was not part of the plan to have the funds disbursed for those purposes.
Meanwhile, the District #3 Rep has disassociated himself from the allegation, and called on the county authority to do a complete and comprehensive audit of the county's Social Development Funds (SDF).
