By Paul Nicholson
March 23 – Rochell Woodson, the Liberian FA executive committee member who blew the whistle on corruption within the federation, has said she will not stand for election for president while the LFA continues to break its own statutes and manipulate the election rules.
Speaking to the press in Liberia, she said that in consultation with her supporters, she had “decided to protest the entire process based on the gross violations of the LFA Approved 2017 Revised Statutes and irregularities by the Executive Committee and the LFA Elections Committee. We have also abstained from the entire process until these gross violations and irregularities are reversed and corrected to conform to the spirit and true intent of the Statute, which is the organic law that governs the running of the LFA.”
Woodson also called on FIFA to release detail of the financial audit carried out by the governing body last December that she says will provide a strong an integrity check for those standing for election.
Specifically Woodson points to the role of Musa Bility in the election process even though he is not contesting the election nor is on the electoral committee. She points out that two members of the electoral committee have clear conflicts of interest. Cllr Arthur Johnson and Cllr. Hadji Sesay, are both retained counsels of Bility while Johnson also serves on the board of his football team.
Woodson says that Bility is manipulating the election process to get his preferred candidate elected – Musa Shannon who has previously admitted to taking a share of $50,000 of Ebola relief money sent to the LFA by FIFA.
“During his press conference on March 16, 2018, rather, than the Elections Committee, Mr. Bility provided elections update and insisted that the elections will go on in the midst of all these violations. We see his action as gross manipulation and influence in the elections process, circumventing the intent and spirit of the LFA Statutes,” said Woodson.
She outlines five clear statutes breaches by the election committee, as well as various irregularities. The statutes breaches include reducing the number of qualified proposers in order to stand for election, changing of the ages and qualifications required to stand for election, and not giving the full time required to prepare for the election.
She also says that electoral information regarding who is standing and the actual voting process is not transparent or clear.
“It has been my practice to follow the laws that govern us as a body. If we as a people cannot live by these laws that we ourselves have put down and accepted, then we should not run an organisation that we say is governed by rules,” she said.
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