Political observers have described as complete insincerity the move by the executives of the Council of Patriots (COP) to expel ten (10) of their members on the basis of disrespecting constituted authority and denigrating statements, as the Founder and leader of the group, Henry P. Costa, is among visible characters who show no regard for constituted authority.
Speaking to the Hot Pepper, they claimed that the action of the COP executives has no moral standing, but only intended to go after individuals who seem vocal on critical happenings within the group. According to them, Costa has denigrated the personalities of national authority without any regard for choice of words, but not a day anyone stood up to his offensiveness and indecency.
They lamented the way Costa provokes the Presidency with his profane jabs and now going after members of his group for doing the same thing against him and his COP. They wondered why a man who loves to publicly insult others would be so hypercritical about others doing same to him.
They noted that it is a fact that Costa insulted Judge Eva Mappy Morgan for her opinion in a case involving Amos Brossius and Charles Carron; a fact that he accused the Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA), Bill Tweahway, of murdering the four auditors who died early October 2020 for which he now faces a lawsuit in the United States; and a fact that he always terms President Weah as being “stupid and dumb”.
On May 5, 2021, the Council of Patriots (COP), an affiliate group of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), headed by Henry P. Costa, expelled a huge number of its members for acts ranging from disrespect of constituted authority, making denigrating statements about the COP to bringing the COP into public disrepute.
A release signed by the Executive Committee of the COP revealed that an emergency meeting was held on Monday, May 3, 2021 and the expulsion of ten members was unanimously voted upon.
According to the release, the COP, as a pressure group, tolerates and encourages disagreements and competition of ideas, but not willful, purposeful and flagrant disrespect toward its leadership and/or tarnishing the movement’s hard-earned image.
Those expelled are Lasana S. Kanneh, Cyrus Manneh (Henry Costa Pekin), Fred Howard, Jr. (Fredie Fred), Alloysius Jallah, Samson Moseray (Telia Urey Pekin), Abraham Godsend Kromah, Alvin B. Grah, Levi Cooper (Lividino Dos Santos Cooper), Varney C. Hilton and Japhet Terry Baryogar.
The release warned that anyone doing business with the expelled persons in the name of the COP will be doing so at their own risk, as they are no longer members of the COP.
However, speaking on the basis of anonymity, a source from within the Council of Patriots (COP) said the expulsion of the members of the COP youth wing stemmed on something bigger and more damaging, and that the executive did not spell out the true reason of the expulsion in the press release.
According to the source, from all indications the counts levied in the release do not worth the expulsion of ten persons, as there has been internal wranglings within the group, with members verbally getting at each other. The source claimed that the expelled individuals may have either received a handsome package on behalf of the COP but refusing to turn it over to the leaders, or they may have received a damning information against certain executive members, for which those executives are afraid before they release same to the public.
Whatever the case may be, the source said, it is sad that the COP would claim to expel its members for disrespecting constituted authority when its Chairman, Costa, has proved beyond doubt that he is allergic to insulting constituted authorities, which he has been doing since the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration.