Facts about the Tabi/Mondi Vs COC Law suit - Lessons Learned: Report by Sesekou Philip Tabi

The Tabi/Mondi Team took part in the MECA-USA elections of 2007 in Houston, TX vying for the NEC position. That Dear people,

On behalf of the Tabi/Mondi Team I would like to thank all of you for taking time off your busy schedules to attend this important event which has been coined as "The MECA-USA Truth and Reconciliation Conference" taking place today October 10th, 2009. We do understand that in every organization, problems are bound to occur and we also do understand that when such problems occur, members of the same organization should never shy away from looking for plausible solutions to the problems.

MECA-USA since its inception has faced so many problems. The members have always looked for ways to resolve those problems. Also, in the history of this organization, every successful leadership has in one way of the other never shied away from attempting to resolve issues or problems plaguing this great association. On that note, I thank all the members who have constructively made all their efforts for this reconciliation to happen election was marred with massive electoral irregularities such as our opponent the Ako/Besong Team registering members in the hall and failure of the electoral committee to respect and follow articles in the constitution that deals with election. The following members who never belonged to any MECA chapters, were registered on the floor by the Ako/Besong Team and allowed to vote by the Electoral Committee made up of Council of Chiefs. Mrs. Judith Ebini from Maryland, Ms Ashuntantang from NC, kima from MN. The Tabi/Mondi Team wrote a petition to the Council of Chiefs to look into the irregularities. The COC met in a teleconference and ruled that there were no irregularities and declared the Ako/Besong Team as the winners despite some objections from some chiefs to at least acknowledge the irregularities (see email from Dr. Kingsley Takor). The COC did not even care to talk to our Team or even invite us to any teleconference. We reiterated our position and called on COC to revisit its verdict for the sake of peace. They met again without inviting us and reiterated their stance on supporting the Ako/Besong Team amidst all provocations from our opponents to go to court.

The Tabi/Mundi Team through their Attorney filed a lawsuit against Ako Peter for acting as the chairman of MECA-USA, John Etta, the head of COC and Solomon Egbe as the resident agent of MECA-USA, asking for”MEDIATION" and not to destroy MECA as our opponents twisted the information and asked for legal defense funds from various chapters. See court documents.


ROADMAP LEADING TO LAWSUIT WITHDRAWAL.

Concerned manyuans have worked hard behind the scene in order to withdraw the lawsuit and settle the issues that emanated from the 2007 election convention amicably. One of those individuals is Minister Mengot who gave me a surprise call from New York where he was attending a UN summit. We spoke for almost an hour and he assured me that he had spoken with Ako Peter for us to withdraw the lawsuit. I listened to the Minister, respected his opinion and welcomed his suggestion.


A teleconference was organized between some members from the Ako/Besong Team and Tabi/Mundi Team. Present at the teleconference were the following members:
1) Dr. Essim Daniel
2) Mr. Ekumah Emmanuel
3) Dr. Besong Samuel
4) Dr. Peter Ako
5) Ms. Patience Ebini
6) PA Hamilton Ayuk
7) Philip Tabi
8) Baiyee Mondi

During this teleconference, we all came into a conclusion that the lawsuit was to be withdrawn the following day, that Philip Tabi will announce on Manyunet and inform all the members that the lawsuit has been withdrawn followed by a similar announcement from Dr. Peter Ako. Finally, the Ako/Besong Team to put all logistics together and call for a General Reconciliation Meeting in Dallas, TX.


The following morning, I called our attorney and notified him that we had had a teleconference and the decision is for him to withdraw the lawsuit. The attorney accepted and went ahead that morning and withdrew the lawsuit. I went on Manyunet and made the announcement and calling upon the Ako/Besong Team to put the logistics together for a general reconciliation meeting in Dallas, TX as per the teleconference.

Two days later, I received a call from Dr. Peter Ako informing that the reason why he has not come out to write on manyunet as per the teleconference was because some of his supporters were fighting him and never liked the idea that he took part in the teleconference. Few days later, his running mate Dr. Samuel Besong wrote a mail (attached with this report) challenging the teleconference, challenging me that I have not been regular in my local chapter meeting and that he will never spend his money to sit on a table with people who do not contribute financially to MECA-USA, thereby objecting to any reconciliation.


From this point up to this point that we are meeting today neither the Ako/Besong Team nor COC ever called for any reconciliation so that we can collectively solve the problems affecting this organization today. Instead, we were faced with different types of electoral fraud in Washington, DC 2009 involving absentee ballots from the same Ako/Besong Team. COC again put the same dagger they used in Houston 2007 by giving the Ako/Besong Team another two years term without elections being held in Washington 2009. This was another major catastrophy to the serenity of the organization.