Ayoubah Kamara, President of the Liberia Scrap Dealers Association (LSDA), has vehemently debunked an on online report published by Smart News and purportedly emanating from a group demanding for his removal from office without a justifiable reason.
In its July 3, 2024 online publication, Smart News quoted a group, Liberia Scrap Buyers Association (LSBA), of accusing the LSDA President of conducting an illegitimate election without an ad-hoc election commission, in violation of the LSDA constitution, and allegedly failing to secure a scrap yard for illegal scrap.
Refuting the claims made by the Liberia Scrap Buyers Association, Kamara termed the demand for his removal from office as unsubstantiated because, according to him, at no time a resolution was signed by the “so-called” 400 members of the LSBA at the headquarters of the LSDA on the Japan Freeway to demand his removal from office for an alleged breach of the LSDA constitution.
The LSDA President disassociated his association from having any link with the LSBA which, he said, is a registered separate entity with the Government of Liberia (GOL), and not clothed with the authority to demand his removal from office.
Not only that, Kamara opined that, with its offices at Barnesville’s intersection, and with Kalifala Sanoe as its President, the LSBA is neither a concerned group within the membership of the LSDA and cannot call for his removal from office as President of the LSDA.
The LSDA boss’ reaction to the allegations uttered by the LSBA was obtained yesterday at his office on the Japan Freeway when he spoke to the Hot Pepper in a brief interview.
On the issue of unilaterally organizing a managed election without proper procedures to retain his three-year term of office, Kamara said at no time did he conduct election as claimed by the LSBA. “In fact,” the LSDA President said, “I was petitioned by thousands of our members in Liberia due to the transformation that I have brought to the LSDA to continue my four-year term of office, and not a three-year term as stated by the LSBA in its so-called resolution.”
Kamara said since his ascendancy as President of the LSDA, he and his corps of officers, including coordinators, have been working and not taking salaries. Predicated on this, he explained that his leadership is financially incapacitated to secure a scrap yard for illegal scrap materials.
He revealed that the LSDA taskforce has arrested some illegal scrap materials in Bong County, and the association has accordingly informed authorities of the Ministry of Mines and Energy about the arrest of the illegal scrap materials.
Regarding the two jeeps and 10 motorbikes that were donated to the LSDA by a major scrap buyer, Paul Sethi, Kamara said one of the jeeps is being used by him and the other by the LSDA operation department. He said five of the motorbikes are being used by the operation department of the head office and the other five by the county coordinators.
Meanwhile, scores of scrap dealers in Monrovia and across the country have joined the LSDA President, Ayoubah Kamara, and his leadership in denouncing the LSBA’s demand for their leader’s removal from office, and described the LSBA as not a concerned body of their association to call for the removal of another entity’s president from office.
They have expressed their renewed confidence in Ayoubah Kamara’s leadership to take the association to the next level in the scrap industry. They admonished him not to be deterred in executing his duty as president of the LSDA, in keeping with his four-year mandate.