Monrovia — The All Liberian Coalition Party (ALCOP) has refuted claims from the Spoon Network that the party has taken money from the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in return for their support during the Presidential re-off election.
According to ALCOP officials, last week, the CEO of Spoon Network Santon Witherspoon serving as a panelist on the Spoon Talk alleges that the party standard-bearer Lusinee F. Kamara has taken four million from CDC.
Witherspoon went on to say that supporters of ALCOP have refused such a decision and has decided to support Unity Party in the run-off Presidential election, Sylla explains.
Speaking after ALCOP Executive Committee members meeting over the weekend at the party's headquarter in Congo Town, both the party chairman Ansu V.S. Dulleh and the national campaign chairman Ali Sylla condemned the allegation from Spoon Network adding that it is baseless.
Party chairman Dulleh said despite they remain the "determiner factor" of the run-off election, there have been no talk between his party and any of the two political parties that are in the run-off election.
"Our standard-bearer is not in the business of collecting money like the way he (Santon Witherspoon) used to collect money from the ruling party. The All Liberian Coalition Party standard-bearer has never collected money or being offered any money from any of the two political parties in the second round, we want to be clear on that," chairman Dulleh said.
ALCOP chairman added: "Spoon Network is a propaganda network of settle political institution that want to spoil the name of our political party."
"We have not received any amount from any political party. ALCOP is strong, let our partisans be aware that today there was an executive meeting, and we were trying to recalibrate and realign our decision making with the development of this nation. What Spoon Network is doing is cheap political propaganda that does not befit us. The next time utterances come out from Spoon Network; they will be sued for five million dollars," he added.
According to ALCOP chairman, they will not be neutral in the run-off election adding that they will give their support to the individual or political institution that is in line with it manifesto.
"ALCOP is a determiner in this country right now. For those of you who underestimated our ability to move this country, they do not know that there is a new sheriff in town. This Sheriff will decide who become President in this country and such person got to be in line with our manifesto. One thing I can say is that ALCOP will not be neutral in this process. We will take a side and the side that we will take, we will make sure that our national executive committee members couple with our traditional people will be part -and we will sell that side to everybody," he added.
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Also speaking, the national campaign chairman Sylla said it was unfortunate that the Spoon Network decided to blackmail them, ALCOP.
"I think it is unfortunate as a media institution. The media should be credible. Not just credible but reliable. For them to come and blackmail us because they have decided to support certain political party, we in ALCOP are not in the business of such. We have the integrity of our institution to protect -that is why we have come to response to Spoon Network," Ambassador Sylla said.
He added: "Yesterday, when they called our name, we tried to call but they refused us. The ALCOP sits in the fourth spot, and we say we are the deciding factor of the Run-off election. We are going to do our consultation not based on the prejudiced attitude. Their attitude was very bias in the absent of our consultation."
"We reject their assumption about us. It is very criminal behavior to accuse us of something we never did. If they continue, we will seek legal redress against them. We are warning them that the next time they put out any garbage against our party or our standard-bearer we will take legal action against Spoon Network," he ended.
