The Editor,
The CDC-led government has gotten afflicted by three major scourges—meltdown of ideas, incompetence, and lack of respect for established laws. These three viruses undermine governance, cripple national output, and set sail a country on the path to the bottomless pit of underdevelopment. They are the challenges gripping the political regime of the CDC, and they are the once triggering the disproportionate levels of decay in the society.
Contempt for the rule of law and the stacking of warlords and gun-totting bandits to key positions in government is now a novel trait of the CDC-led government. After the war years, succeeding regimes have followed this trend: the executive would appoint warlords to critical sectors, while people like Prince Y. Johnson, Kai Farley, and many others exploited tribal cleavages to win legislative seats in their native counties.
Fourteen years after the election of the first democratically elected government, the CDC-led government has exacerbated the trend. Nowadays, too often they treat us to the sight of notorious warlords recruited into the intelligence apparatus of the state to perform sting operations on behalf of the regime. Mr Weah has gone bizarre. He has thrust criminals and warlords to Liberia’s Ministry of Justice. Here, the height of moral bankruptcy dripping is bliss. Which then brings me to zero in on one Mr Sayma Syrenus Cephus, a man with a dangerous history who plays at being the solicitor general of Liberia. Cephus, for all his bluster about fighting corruption, waste and abuse, he reeks of immorality, corruption, and illegality. Not only was he part and parcel of the killing and maiming machine of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), but he gained nationwide notoriety for running the scandal sheet named the Plain Truth Newspaper. As the publisher of the paper, his victims dragged him to court for blackmailing them and practising tabloid journalism.
Let me provide a short history of the man who fancies himself as the chief prosecute of Liberia, but who is a hatchet man. During the NPFL incursion of Liberia, Cephus scored high marks in mayhem, so the NPFL command structure promoted him to lead the reign of terror efforts in three south-eastern counties—Grand Gedeh, Maryland, and Sinoe. He was the infamous leader of the NPFL’s G-2 when the slaughtering group captured Harper City in 1990. He and his men unleashed an orgy of bloodletting when the city fell to them. Innocent Liberians perished under the bullets of the arch warlord who holds himself as a solicitor general. Cephus set up the murder of the deceased former superintendent of Maryland County in D. Wah Hne, who got wasted at the behest of Moses Blah.
Individuals like Cephus are a malign cancer in the body of our nation, even worse is that he now serves as the Solicitor General in a county with a track record of the abuse of the rule of law, and he works for a government which has made the violation of standing legal canons as its major achievement. His contempt for the rule of law has taken a new turn. He is the key facilitator of the crimes and gangsterism of Nathaniel McGill, the Sabu/Zebra Unit, and the other dangerous ex-general who are working for the National Security Association (NSA). With the litany of criminal misconduct of this spiv, he shouldn’t come anywhere near human rights issues, the rule of law, and social justice.
Sadly, it defies mockery for President George Weah, who carries himself as an icon of peace, to have a menace like Syrenus Cephus, serving as the chief prosecutor of our country. If persons like Cephus who performed impunity during the war years and is deficient in morality continues to serve in such a key position, President Weah would have set what modicum leaves of his peace image to disrepute. Rather than Cephus playing such a role, he needs to face criminal prosecution for committing heinous crimes. Mr Weah must kick Cephus out of his government to redeem himself and show the Liberians and the world that he has a political backbone.
Mohammed Ali
Secretary General
Council of Patriots