Monrovia – Bong County Senator Henry Yallah on Tuesday said he was disheartened to hear Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor use her position to preach hate in the county instead of promoting peace and reconciliation among citizens.
Yallah responded to statements Howard Taylor made last week when she campaigned in the county for Rep. Marvin Cole’s bid to replace her as senior senator of Bong County.
Speaking to citizens in David Dean’s Town in Kokoya District, Howard-Taylor accused some caucus members including Yallah of corruption, claiming they are the reasons for the delay and mismanagement of funds for the Gbarnga Street pavement project and the Bong County Technical College.
“The people are corrupt,” she said. “Where has the money for the road construction and college gone?”
Yallah said he felt compelled to respond to Howard Taylor’s claims against him and other caucus members because the Vice President was also part of the caucus.
“She was in the Senate when the college project began in 2008 and now she is acting as if she had no part to play when things went wrong with the project,” he said.
Howard Taylor, Yallah said, was a major signatory to the document that ‘give birth to the college.’’
“The Vice President should be asking herself rather than asking us,” he said.
Yallah was elected in 2011, four years after the college construction began.
He said he presided over only US$1.9 million of the US$3.4 million earmarked for the college. He was elected the same year as Deputy Speaker Prince Moye (District Two, Unity Party) and Rep. Edward Karfiah (District Five, People’s Unification Party).
Howard Taylor was first elected in 2005 and re-elected in 2014. Yallah said he, Moye and Karfiah were not signatories of the college agreement.
The college was funded with money from the County and Social Development Fund (CSDF).
The Gbarnga Street project was allotted US$1.6 million in 2016.
Yallah blamed the slow pace of the street project on the global recession that reduced earnings for the county’s leading concession companies – China Union and Arcellor Mittal.
Yallah said the streets will be paved when the county receives money to the CSDF from the two companies.
“Once Bong County gets money in the account, we will continue,” he said.
Yallah also disagreed with Howard Taylor that six of the seven caucus members do not support President George Manneh Weah.
He said the Vice President wants to create a false impression that opposition lawmakers do not support the president.
Yallah said, Howard Taylor mandated citizens to only respect her, Superintendent Esther Walker and Rep. Marvin Cole.
Yallah refused to comment on Howard Taylor’s statement that she would ensure that he’s not re-elected in 2020 because he has failed the people of Bong County.
Howard Taylor supported Yallah in 2011.
Credit: FPA,Liberia