The SUP Veteran Forum, a consortium of former leaders and stalwarts of the Vanguard Student Unification Party (SUP) of the University of Liberia has heavily descended on the CDC led government for “being involved in the unprovoked attack on students” who gathered at the U.S. Embassy on Independence Day (July 26) at the behest of SUP to call attention to and protest against the “ mismanagement of the Country under the kleptocratic rule of George Weah” and called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the alleged masterminds whom they named as Ben Believe Togbah, Jr, Henry Da Silva Tarbla, Jr., Abdurahman Barrie, Hassan Trawally, Kendrick Siedemahn Pelenah, Joshua Karr, Foday N. Massaquoi, Pukar Robert, Aaron Kofa Chea, and all those who were used as cannon folders by the ruling party to violently attack the University students.
In a strong worded press statement issued last night, Thursday, July 28, 2022, the Vanguard SUP Veteran Community said it seriously took exception to the lawlessness the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and the “inept leadership the corrupt administration of George Weah” showed on Independence Day by recruiting and sponsoring thugs and hoodlums to violently attack peaceful students staging a Fix the Country Protest at the U.S. Embassy. The release said the SUP Veteran Forum considered the response of the GOL to the SUP Fix the Country Protest as undemocratic and inimical to the peace and stability of the country. “Such a response was aimed at denying the University students the right to freedom of expression and at instilling fear and terror in the students and Liberians in general”, the release said..
“Equally, we are deeply concerned about the breach of security and the potential for plunging Liberia into a serious violent conflict if nothing is done to confront the lawlessness being exhibited by CDC Council of Patriots whose actions, judging from intelligence gathered by us, are masterminded and directed by Jefferson Koijee, Nathaniel McGill, and the President himself, using state resources to lure and use impoverished, bread-crumb-seeking young people like Ben Believe Togbah, Jr. and his cabal of bootlickers as cannon folders of violence.
“Let it be noted by Liberians and the international community that President George Weah, Minister of State Nathaniel McGill, and Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee are reportedly linked to recruiting, organizing, financing, sponsoring, and arming armed robbers, ex-combatants, and militants from the ruling CDC into what they call ‘Sabu Unit’, ‘Kuba Unit’, ‘Zebra Unit’, and ‘Moscow Empire’ These are groups that are reportedly noted for carrying out bloody attacks against innocent civilians generally and the Vanguard Student Unification Party in particular; for instilling fear and terror, and for mysterious killings in Liberia.
“The unjustified attack on the University students, as we watched in anger video clips and other graphic images of the attack on social networks, where the hoodlums and gangsters were being escorted by uniformed police officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP), who looked on and smiled without intervening to stop the brutalization of the students, leaves us more apprehensive about the competency and impartiality of law enforcement officers to protect lives and properties in Liberia. We therefore call for an immediate disciplinary action against the policeman who looked on and smiled as peaceful students were attacked, beaten, tied and made naked in public.
The group said it must be made clear that this act of violent attack on SUP cadres and students of the University of Liberia was not only distressing and outrageous, but unhealthy and uncivilized for our wellbeing as a people and country, adding that the act of torture under the watch of the Liberia National Police is a violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT); which Liberia is a State Party.
Besides, the statement further said the suppression of the right to freedom of expression and the clamp down on peaceful assembly and protest contravene the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as the very Bill of Rights enshrined in the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia and that the Vanguard SUP Veteran Community in Liberia and the Diaspora is calling on the Minister of Justice to investigate the unprovoked attack, arrest, and prosecute the perpetrators in the soonest of time.
“Also, the Vanguard SUP Veteran Community is drawing the attention of the United Nations, the African Union, the ECOWAS, the EU Mission in Liberia and the Governments and Peoples of the United States of America and China to this barbaric act carried out by the ruling CDC, state sponsored hoodlums. We call on the International Community to see the Independent Day attack on the University students not as an isolated case, but as a creeping, dangerous development with the potential to plunge Liberia into a violent conflict, especially as we move toward the 2023 Presidential and General Elections”, the statement concluded.
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