TOP Youth Arm calls on Executive to Resign

Several members of the Tobago Organization of the People (TOP)  youth arm are not happy with the present leadership of party chairman Lionel Coker.

 The youth members are calling on the entire executive of TOP to resign with immediate effect and an interim executive be appointed in place to take the party to the next internal election.

 “We are also asking that the entire youth arm executive demit office forthwith and a date set for the internal elections,” they said yesterday.

 Members of the youth arm met at TOP headquarters in Tobago on Saturday, thrashing out a number of internal issues within the party. Following the meeting, a letter was drafted and submitted  to the executive of the party, highlighting their concerns.

“It is with a heavy heart that we find ourselves writing to you this day as you may already know that a number of us within the youth arm have requested a meeting with you all to deal with several issues that exist within the youth arm of the party,” the letter stated.

“Mr Kevon McKenna would have written to the chairman regarding this, whose response was shocking to many of the members, as it was revealed that, in accordance with the ‘constitution’ of the party, many members who paid money and worked for the party at various levels were not really members and as such we seek clarity on the following:

At the first meeting of the island council, when Mr (Ashworth) Jack submitted his resignation, the ‘youth’ of the youth arm’s names were listed on a document stating that ‘we’ the members of the youth arm want Mr Jack to remain as leader of this illustrious party. The majority of us at that moment were not even financial or enlisted members of the party (in keeping with the constitution) but this document was endorsed by the signature of the youth arm president.

 “If the signatures of this document were not of legitimate members of the youth arm, then does this not illegitimise the document requesting Mr Jack to remain as leader? Then maybe that decision should be reconsidered,” the letter added.

“It seems as though only certain members have a say within this party.  The PNM has programmes and an attitude to encourage our youth to join them. It appears the TOP is now a dictatorship as democracy is now only a word to you honourable members,” it concluded. 

Source: trinidadexpress