MONROVIA – In the wake of clashes of the Students under the banner of the Students Unification Party (SUP) of the University of Liberia with the riot squad of the Liberia National Police (LNP), the 31st Politburo and Central Committee concomitantly of the Vanguard Student Unification Party (SUP) of the University of Liberia, says it condemns what it referred to as ‘the violent invasion of the University of Liberia by the UP-Police of Mr. Boakai,’ but recommit its Uncompromising Position on the Re-opening of School.
The students said they were protesting the abrupt closure of the University of Liberia, and noted that their action was intended to provoke the government’s action towards the reopening of the institution.
Some students spoken within hideouts in nearby communities of the UL’s Capitol Hill Campus said they were peacefully demonstrating on their campus when the government unleashed armed police to disperse them, a situation which he noted led to injuries of some of them in the aftermath of the clashes.
This commotion on the UL Capitol Hill Campus is in the wake of the shutdown of the institution by the University of Liberia Faculty and Staff Association (ULFASA) which in an eight-count position statement demands amongst other things asked all part-time and full-time faculty and staff members of the institution to stay away from work.
But administration of the University of Liberia (UL) resisted the shutdown of the UL, advised all legally employed faculty to continue their regular activities on the University campuses, reminding them all that unauthorized absence without excuse for 10 working days is tantamount to resignation.
In the face of the fuss at the stage run-university which has impeded the learning process, the visitor of the University, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai has directed the Board Trustees of the University to set up a Search Committee for a new President of the University and address emerging issues affecting the University,
It is amidst the debacle the students in a press release circulated on the social media also called for justices for Christopher W. Sivili, a SUPist flogged by the George Weah administration at the premise of the US Embassy why the student based political party was protesting who they referred to as ‘devotees of academic excellence and crusaders of genuine tenets of democratic probity; students of the University of Liberia and progressive Liberians”.
“With vehement instance, the vanguard Student Unification Party condemns the brutal and vicious invasion of the Capitol Hill campus of the University of Liberia by the partisan police of Mr. Boakai while peaceful students had assembled in demand of the immediate re-opening of school.”
This unprovoked and unwarranted attack by the unprofessional police of Mr. Boakai, the student lamented, is an open and clear violation of article 17 of the constitution of the Republic of Liberia and article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ther student said the police on the order of President Boakai unlawfully invaded the campus with guns and ammunition and left several students wounded, noting that the Students who got wounded by the police have been rushed to hospital for immediate medical attention as their conditions remain severe.
“We want to remind Mr. Boakai that brute has never intimidated the resolve of our party and trekking this path will only inspire and gas up the vibrancy of our party” the noted, stating that “SUP wants to assure and reassure Mr. Boakai and his freckles irresponsible police that no amount arm and gun men will disrupt the gallant resolve of the party in ensuring the immediate re-opening of school.”
According to the students’ release coded REF, 038, on the their Facebook page signed by the Secretary General of the party, Cde Mohammed S. Jalloh and approved by SUP’s Chairman Kwien W. Kwien, II, the militants and ideologues of SUP shall never succumbed to any vicious and monstrous arrogance intended to banish the party to silence and taciturnity.
Moreover, the Student Unification Party says it wants to recommit its uncompromising position on the re-opening of school. “We maintain that the education of the over 20-thousand students of the university cannot be negotiated for anything, the post said.
Chairman Kwien, the release said, is asking all students to remain assured that the party is working out all compulsory and necessary measures to ensure that classes resume as immediately as possible.
The history of SUP is a history of defending the fundamental interest of the student masses of the University students and the Liberians in general against all odds and prevailing circumstances, that the party is therefore going to use all means necessary to ensure that school resumes immediately.
Meanwhile, the students recalled that on July 26, 2022, hired regime thugs under the banner of the CDC-COP discharge torturous attack on several student leaders amongst whom was Cde. Christopher Sivili, who was gruesomely dehumanized in the public glare, during a major protest action of the Student Unification Party.
Cde. Walter Sisulu, as he is affectionately called by his comrades, had gone to join SUP and the Liberian people in the #FixtheCountry protest to compel the then Weah government to fix the country by addressing the hardship and national decadence faced by the Liberian masses.
However lawful and constitutionally prudential this action was, the student indicated that the government allowed the arrogance of power to becloud its reasoning faculty and instituted lawless measures by using paramilitary thugs with deadly and cadaverous weapons to indiscriminately harm lawful protesters who were armless and harmless to the state.
“This led to Comrade Sivili torturous dehumanization. The severity of the attack on Cde. Sivili and his person which led to his health being badly injured with serious traumatic effects couldn’t allow him the latitude to stay in a country where the government was determined to silence him since he could easily identify all those who mobbed him.
The SUP release pointed out that Cde. Sisulu was therefore forced to run into exile for the safety of his well being, even though he was dehumanized, tortured, humiliated, and brutalized, but remains steadfastly if not fiercely disapproved and opposed to administrative degeneracy and debasement.
Two years since the sad occurrence of this gross human right violation, SUP said Cde. Sisulu is yet to get Justice in Liberia, however the international community has acknowledged his resilience and fortitude in defense of the tenets and values of democracy.
“Cde. Christopher W Sivili has been preferred by the Kofi Annan Foundation as one of the ten finalists for the Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize. The Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy prize is a prize that recognizes exceptional leadership and inspires more young people to commit to the advancement of democracy,” the SUP release explained.
Student Unification Party therefor honors this preferment “The Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy prize” as a heroic milestone of its ideologue and leader, especially at a time when the Liberian government doesn’t want to adjudicate and dispense prudential justice against those who meted violation of human indignity against him.
“We also see this preference as a victorious honor and a bloody defeat to dictatorship, tranny, and anti-democratic tendencies. Like the bold step taken by the international world through the Kofi Annan Foundation, the party re-alarms the immediate need for speedy trial for all the indictees and perpetrators of the July 26, 2022 violence and re-echoes its calls for Sisulu to receive justice,” the release concluded.
Comments are closed.