Monrovia – Jefferson Tamba Koijee, the Secretary General of the Coalition of the Democratic (CDC) is calling the newly inducted President Joseph Boakai to make known his medical status a day after heat exhaustion caused him to halt his inaugural speech.
By J.H. Webster Clayeh (0886729972)[email protected]
During the inauguration ceremony for President Boakai, the event came to a temporary halt as the 79-year-old leader reportedly experienced heat exhaustion during his inaugural address.
President Boakai was sworn into office at midday, on Monday January 22, 2024. He was delivering his inaugural speech for over 30 minutes when the incident occurred.
Under the scorching sun, the temperature in Monrovia was 29 degrees Celsius. Dressed in a traditional country cloth attire, President Boakai began to show signs of distress due to the high temperature.
The President, visibly affected by the heat, was assisted to a seated position, where security officers promptly stepped in to fan him to help him cool off, but the President still could not continue with his speech.
Despite the unexpected interruption, sources confirm that President Boakai is in good condition but speaking to the press a day after the incident, the Secretary General of the CDC said Liberians both home and abroad need to know the status of the man that occupies the highest seat in the land.
“Boakai should understand he occupies the highest office of the land, and that office should be very transparent; we call for an unconditional release of his medical record. Liberians deserve better,” the CDC Secretary General said.
Koijee added: “We are very concerned about President Boakai. We think he is President for everybody. We are very concerned about President Boakai’s health. He is our President, and we are going to pray for him. We do not want anything to happen to him. It is not just about the Unity Party partisans again; he is President for every one of us. The government now must explain to us and give us the actual account, we should not be second guessing. They should tell us about his health, they need to be transparent about that.”
At the inaugural ceremony, the heat exhaustion caused the death of one person. Also, several others including two securities, one from the Armed Forces of Liberia and the other from the Executive Protection Service also collapsed because of heat exhaustion.
Still speaking, Koijee says there should be an investigation to ascertain what went wrong on the day of the inauguration.
“Circumstances surrounding fainting and death of people at what should be a joyous occasion as inauguration need to be investigated,” Koijee said.
He said: “There is news filtering from the inauguration where people fainted and lost their lives. It is not just to be told. We need President Boakai and the new leadership; we need a criminal investigation. Inauguration is not the place for people to be fainting and dying.”
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