MONROVIA: Amidst what it called “a flagrant violation of the constitution and clear propensity to derail the peace of the country, the former ruling party, the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), has warned President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and his government “not to tamper with the peace and stability of the country” as Liberians are resolved to live in harmony with each other just as the party called on the international community to do whatever in its power to avert any crisis from the actions of the ruling establishment.
The assertion of the party was made by the Acting Chairman, Janga Kowo when he addressed a major press conference yesterday at the National Headquarters in the presence of top party officials and partisans where he spoke on several governance issues, which according to him, the government has deliberately decided to arbitrarily and knowingly violate with impunity. He warned of the dire consequences of such “provocations and violations” on the peace and stability of the country which as seen “the government embarking on the process of the retrogression of the peace we have enjoyed for almost 2 decades”
“We have assembled here today to point out to the UP government; the government of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai that he should not play with the peace and stability of the country. The peace of this country has not been maintained by the police, not by the army, not by any armed security forces of the state. The peace of this country has been maintained by the Liberian people, so do not test their resolve; do not test the resolve of the Liberian people because you do not have enough security to contain the Liberian people.
“So you should not tamper with the peace and tranquility of the country because you ascended to power on the margin of error. This is a clear will of the people that matters and as you are aware, the country is divided down the middle so don’t exhibit arrogance and power because it is arrogance that leads to a lot of conflict”, Acting Chairman Kowo said.
Addressing the specificity of the some of the burning national issues, Kowo spoke on the “illegal dismissal of some EPS officers “by the Executive Director of the Executive Protection Services, Sam Gaye, “whom I consider very irresponsible, his action has the propensity to undermine the peace and stability of the state, and he seems not to understand what his duties are”
He said the whole affair at the EPS started with disrespecting former President George Manneh Weah and “have took upon themselves to dismiss all EPS officers all because they were employed by the regime of President George Weah” and asserted that the act was “anti-peace, irresponsible and reckless”.
“So we want to take this time to call on the international community to take due note of these excesses, of these violations, we understand the EPS officers are utilizing all opportunities for the law to take its course because they are Liberian citizens, they are not foreigners who were recruited into the services of the EPS and they diligently served the country through their 6 years of services to the state during which time we did not see any incident of EPS abusing the people”, Kowo said.
Kowo maintained that the former President on his ascendency to power in 2018, did not bother to dismiss any officer the EPS inherited from his predecessor but ensured that they were all retained with their various portfolios and there was unity among the security set up even after new recruits were brought into the EPS.
“And there was unity in the EPS because that entire EPS that was inherited in 2018 was maintained. They were not targeted and as you may be aware, UNMIL withdrew from this country in May 2018 which led to the wisdom of those in power to recruit additional men in the EPS”, he said.
Speaking further, Kowo mentioned the incident in Kinjor few weeks ago which according to him “some citizens were killed in cold blood” and that the party had written its initial communication to the national legislature as well as the international community “to bring the attention of the leaders of the international community to these acts and we understand the police has investigated itself and has exonerated itself”
“For us it is very laughable and for this we want to state in this public manner the need for an independent investigation because we do not trust the police to investigate itself; the manner and form the investigation was proceeding was used as a tool against our democracy”, he said
The acting Chairman who was cheered throughout his presentation by a huge number of partisans and supporters who chanted battle cries, slogans and sang revolutionary songs also used the medium to address the Supreme Court ruling few days ago on tenured positions and described the acceptance of the ruling by the President as “hypocritical” since it agreed it erred but still went ahead using another means to suspend the same officials and replacing them with the same officials whose nominations were nullified and revoked by the apex court.
“We were happy that yet the government has come to its senses because it had nominated people to these positions that were clear violation of the constitution and the Supreme Court did point that to the office of the President and we were happy; we saw a glimmer of hope but we did not know that that was hypocritical because the acceptance of the supreme court was not in good faith
“For the matter of fact, few hours after the acceptance of the ruling of the Supreme Court, the very same government, the very same President in the Executive Mansion went ahead challenging the supreme court by suspending and reappointing those who were appointed and nullified by the Supreme Court”, he said.
Kowo said it does not make sense when the government engages in things with the anticipation that it will be challenged by the citizens when it is within the purview of the government to protect the sanctity of the constitution and the rights of the people based on the oath it took to protect and defend the people. He said it was counterproductive and “we do not expect the government to see the citizens always going to court to challenge the government“
“Even after they have succeeded in challenging the government in court, the government arbitrarily will violate the constitution and the release from the Executive mansion accepting the result of the Supreme Court was a mockery.
“We call on the stakeholders that the government is not a government of rule of law. In the suspension, the government also called on the GAC to conduct an investigation and we urge the GAC not to be drawn into the fray because the GAC is a respected anti-graft agency of the government, it is clearly written clearly in the GAC Act that it does not need anyone to direct it to do its work. Stop Politicizing the GAC”, he cautioned .
On the alleged violation of the rights of the citizens by the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA), the CDC Acting Chairman said it was hard time the agency conducts itself and activities professionally and avoid harassing the citizens, adding that “if there is a violation, the LDEA should use the statutory processes to prosecute the offenders but not going to hotels and other places to harass people and soliciting bribes.“
In his closing statement indicting the government of wrongdoing, Kowo said it was unfortunate that the government has been appointing alleged murderers to local government offices especially in Lofa County where some people were allegedly murdered by operatives of the then opposition Unity Party and most of them are presently working in the government.
“During the elections, the UP operatives were involved in various murders around the country in the name of elections. We were in government; we had the state security apparatus at our disposal, we did not abuse it, the CDC was not involved in the death of any person but you can count up to 5, 6 persons that were murdered in the hands of UP operatives. In Foya, several individuals were attacked and murdered and those who were accused, indicted and charged for these murders are being appointed to local positions in Lofa County.
“Again that was very unacceptable, that was anti-peace and we hereby condemn it”, he concluded.
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