MONROVIA: Though it is not known what role the sitting political administration directly played in the recent demolition of the sever homes of citizens in Congo Town—a demolition ruled by the High Court of the country—both the victims and other stakeholders in the country are nonetheless holding the Boakai government culpable. Perhaps there are those who think the Government had the power and way to have averted the incident which rendered dozens of citizens homeless. For the Secretary General of the opposition Coalition for Democracy Change, the demolition and its attending consequences are intolerable evil and that he and his party will not fold their hands in the face of it. What will they do exactly? Meanwhile, he has already visited the site and the affected persons, as The Analyst reports.
Amid public outcry triggered by the demolition of several dwelling houses and properties in the Catholic Hospital Community which rendered thousands of Liberians homeless last week, the Secretary General of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Jefferson Tamba Koijee has condemned the act, terming it as inhumane.
Koijee vowed that the CDC would not sit down supinely to fold its hands, as “we will not be spectator to such a despicable evil”.
He made the statement Friday, April 5, 2024 at the site of the demolition exercise in the presence of thousands of the victims where he had gone to see for himself the level of destruction and humiliation suffered by the people.
Earlier some of the victims had gone to the National Headquarters of the CDC to seek the party’s intervention, a strong voice that could be listened to by the government.
He said the party has got no plan to politicize the issue, but it was necessary to speak on burning issues that affect the citizens especially so when the citizens themselves made it their duty to approach the party for intervention and to speak out for them when their rights and opportunities are being abused by the ruling government.
“For us, we are not here for politics,” Koijee said. “Politics was yesterday. Tt is gone. Whatever role you played, when the game is over, it is over. You will live with your history but it does not mean because we were not satisfied with the results, we will become spectator to evil.”
He stated further: “We were at the party’s headquarters and we saw our mothers, our fathers– innocent Liberians—in tears and agony, with their babies on their backs. The least we could do was to come and witness what was perpetrated by a created tyranny.”
Koijee warned President Joseph Nyuma Boakai not to run away from maintaining the peace that was enjoyed by Liberians under former President George Manneh Weah for the last 6 years.
“Mr. Boakai is fast moving to disrupt the peace of this country,” he noted, adding, “That is a wrong venture. “Let him stop being deceived by these mere job hustlers, the likes of Sam Gaye, AB Kromah. They have zero capacity to protect anything in this country.”
The former Lord Mayor of Monrovia spoke to the President directly: “Mr Boakai, let me let you know you clearly: in that kind of age, when you have the opportunity, the least thing you can do is to do the right thing for your people so you can be remembered in history. You have a legacy to be appreciated after you must have left the presidency and after your demise. Stop being deceived by these mere hustlers. These are political leeches. They are frustrated. Some of these men are parasites. Some of them came from America. They are old folk retirees. The likes of Sam Gaye, and I see him pussyfooting like he can do anything here.”
While emphatically stating that it was out of order to allow Liberians to be subjected to untold hardship by a demolition exercise that has left many homeless and frustrated just to protect a single citizen, Koijee warned President Boakai and his security agents, including, EPS Director Sam Gaye and others not to aggravate the situation.
“You don’t know this terrain, stop what you can’t contain!
“We are having consultation with the victims tomorrow. They will come here and use human shield to protect themselves. They will come out to protect themselves since you think you can make them vulnerable. So, come and use gun to shoot them. It is better to die with honor than to live with shame.”
Koijee, who was given heroic welcome by the thousands of cheering victims, shouted, “We want justice!”
Apparently overwhelmed with emotion upon viewing the hills of rubbles of victims’ demobilized homes, he growled: “Where do you have to go? Look at their children! So, we look to Mr. Boakai to use the ERU to come and shoot you and go and rest than to be a spectator with shame. There should be no law in this country to put you in this. This is tantamount to pushing people to commit genocide. How can one man own this place? You are targeting certain group of people and you need to stop what you are doing.”
The CDC Chief Scribe said the peace of the country is being threatened on a daily basis by the Boakai led administration “and for us, the elections are over; We have accepted the results. But we cannot sit down here while you do what you are doing to these people.”
“To protect the peace of this country is not what we should ask for permission from Mr. Boakai for,” Koijee. “The protection of peace in this country is a collective investment and in fact CDC is the biggest investor in the peace of this country.”
He added: “Today, we are here because the peace is being provoked. We are talking to the community people who have reached out to us and we are asking them that the CDC will stay with them. The CDC knows nothing else but to stand in defense of the poor people. The CDC will not sit down here and watch Mr. Boakai to be ruthless to our people.”
He told the people to arrange all their legal papers for review so that a solid legal backing could be leveraged because “we are not discussing politics right now; we are talking about life and death of our people”.
“What you are subjecting the people has the proclivity to explode to something unusual,” he warned. “You know what you are talking about here? You are talking about 25,000 people. You cannot come here and you think you can make the people homeless.”
Koijee told the victims not to be deterred because he will explore every means possible to revert what has happened to the people negatively and ensure that there is no law that will be used against them which will plunge them into abject to “illegal eviction, poverty, displacement and untold human sufferings and misery”.
Earlier, the Chairman of the community, who had led hundreds of other wailing victims of the demolition to the National Headquarters of the CDC said they were excited that “in the wilderness our cries were heard by the people we rejected. We did not vote for them, but we voted for the very people who are now telling us to leave this place for.
“First of all, before I say anything, I will say sorry to former President George Manneh Weah. We wrong you and please forgive us. We went for the rescue mission and had thought they would have been a difference but everything was just a big lie. “George Weah, sorry for not voting for you; we are regretting our mistakes but we now know that they did not come to rescue us”.
He said when the Supreme Court made a determination in the disputed land case which a Gaye family claimed to own, “the Township commissioner, Mayor Koijee and Honorable Joseph Davies came her and made sure that no eviction took place but as soon as the rescue mission came in, they started evicting us”.
He pleaded with Koijee to exert whatever means possible to ensure that they remain on the land “because we have equally invested in the development of this land and our children were born here. Most of them have grown up into adulthood and they see this place as their place of birth and origin.”
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