PHOTO: The two PUL presidential candidates
The National Campaign Management Team of Julius Kanubah for the Presidency of the Press Union of Liberia rejects claims by the outgoing leadership of the PUL that it consulted its candidates on the postponement of the Union’s 2022 Congress, which had been scheduled from 10 to 12 November 2022 in Gbarnga, Bong County.
Earlier this week (November 8, 2022), the Leadership of the PUL said, “in consultation with its Executive Committee and the 2022 Elective Congress Committee has postponed this year’s Congress.”
According to the Union, the decision was reached after the Liberian Government announced that this year’s National Population and Housing Census will kick off on Friday, Nov 11, which falls on the second day of the PUL Congress.
The PUL administration also said, “The decision, which was also reached in consultation with the candidates in the pending election, is intended to allow members of the Union across the country as well as invited personalities stay in their localities and be counted.’
In a press release on Tuesday, 08 November, PUL outgoing Secretary General Musa MB Kenneh, claimed that the decision to postpone the Congress was “reached in consultation with the candidates in the pending election.”
The Julius Kanubah Campaign Management Team describes such claims by the PUL as complete falsehood, only intended to mislead the journalism and media public and gain legitimacy at the expense of the impeccable character of its Presidential candidate Julius Kanubah and Vice-Presidential candidate Beatrice Tetee Sieh.
The Julius Kanubah Team further clarifies that at no time any of its candidates or the National Campaign Chairman ever had a meeting or telephone conversation with the PUL outgoing leadership to have the timetable of the 2022 Congress adjusted.
The Campaign Management Team of Julius Kanubah for PUL Presidency emphatically states that the decision to postpone the PUL 2022 Congress was unilaterally executed by the Charles Coffey – Daniel Nyakonah leadership in complete disregard to the PUL Constitution and its candidates.
Article 10 Section 2 of the PUL Constitution provides that, “Congress shall meet in the second week of November every three years for not less than one day and not more than three days knowing full well that the last day of Congress shall be the second Saturday of November.”
The unilateral decision by the Charles Coffey–Daniel Nyakonah leadership to postpone the 2022 Congress is thus unconstitutional and can only be linked to the seeming depletion of the Union’s financial accounts, especially so when the PUL leadership along with the 2022 Congress Chairwoman Mrs. Carolyn Myers-Zoduah has embarrassingly been writing politicians and private sector actors, begging for money in the name of hosting the Congress.
It is high time the Coffey–Nyakonah leadership together with Congress Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Myers-Zoduah takes the moral high ground by refraining from reducing the PUL to a beggar-like institution.
The Coffey – Nyakonah leadership recently collected over ten thousand United States dollars from journalists, media practitioners and communication professionals as part of payments toward the renewal or registration of membership.
The Julius Kanubah National Campaign Team is therefore asking the Coffey–Nyakonah leadership to account for the 10–thousand US dollars membership fees in addition to the other 10–thousand US dollars collected each from the Government of Liberia and the political leader of the People’s Liberation Party, Daniel Cassell.