A plan to expel Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor from her Standard Bearer portfolio of the National Patriotic Party (NPP) has been unearthed by the Hot Pepper.
According to a credible source within the NPP National Executive Committee (NEC), Vice President Howard-Taylor is to be expelled as Standard Bearer come the NPP’s 7th biennial convention, soon to be convened in the country.
The source hinted the Hot Pepper that the pending expulsion of VP Howard-Taylor from the party’s top position borders on her alleged “deception/lies” and misrepresentation of the political institution’s manifesto, acting contrary to the standards for which the party was established by its founding members, and for working against the interest of the broad spectrum of the National Executive Committee (NEC), partisans, senior advisors and well-wishers of the George Weah-led Coalition for Democratic Change(CDC) government.
The source claimed that VP Howard-Taylor refuses to be check-mated whenever she slips, and does not seek the interest of party when it comes to submission of names of its stalwarts and qualified partisans for onward appointments in the CDC-led administration by President Weah.
“How can Jewel Howard-Taylor of our own bend on working against the interest of our party?” a disenchanted NPP partisan pondered.
Amongst those 30-plus NPP NEC members who signed the resolution for a change of venue of the party’s forthcoming 7th biennial convention are Senator James P. Biney, National Chairman; partisans Sam Zor, Kojo Wilson, James Kpateh, Anthony Barclay, J. Allison Barco, Olivia Shannon, Michael M. Dolo, Kollie T. Kamara and Andrew Peters, amongst others.
There are also reports emanating from the insider of the NPP that Bomi Senator, Edwin Melvin Snowe, has been tipped to be a possible replacer of the NPP standard bearer at the pending 7th biennial convention, and upon his election at the convention would go as running mate to the Coalition of Democratic Change (CDC) in the 2023 general and presidential elections.
Meanwhile, the National Executive Committee of the NPP has formulated a resolution for the change of venue of the NPP 7th biennial convention.
According to section 9.1 of the resolution (soon to be released in Monrovia), which has to do with election and terms of office, chairpersons and all other officers except the secretariat shall serve the party in their respective capacities for a period of four years and shall be eligible to be reelected for not more than one(1).
The resolution in the offing is being signed by over 30 of the 53 NPP NEC members. The 7th biennial convention was scheduled for Gbarnga, Bong County, but there has been a change of venue to Monrovia, from December 6—10, 2021.
According to the NPP resolution, the change of venue is primarily due to Vice President/Standard Bearer Jewel Howard-Taylor reneging on making available at least US$90,000 she had committed providing to the party executives for the convening of the 7th biennial convention, meant to host about 553 delegates from across the country, taking care of their sitting allowances and housing, among other pertinent issues, for the resounding success of the convention. It also covers election of new corps of party officers.
As the Hot Pepper went to press late yesterday, it was not known whether Vice President Howard-Taylor had made good her pledge to the NPP as the 7th biennial convention draws nearer.