Monrovia – The opposition Liberty Party (LP) says it takes seriously and is aware of the political emotions and intolerance driving lawsuits against Mr. Abraham Darius Dillon, the LP Vice Chair for Political Affairs and Mr. Henry P. Costa, arguably the most vocal critics of the regime.
According to the party’s Chairman, Senator Steve Zargo of Lofa County, the Party will do everything legally and politically reasonable to protect the two individuals, as their advocacies continue to benefit the greater interests of the country.
“We would like to warn public officials instituting such court actions as a means of clamping down on dissent to immediately desist as it would only heighten the wave of political tension blowing across the country.
“These officials are supposed to know that democracy, the form of government that we subscribe to, is one founded on freedom. The history of our country is replete with the very harsh consequences of people attempting to subvert and manage the freedom of the people.”
In his further comments, the opposition Liberty Party Chairman also cautioned the government against taking actions that would set the nation on a path of reliving its national nightmares of the past.
He challenged President George Weah to rise to the occasion and begin to show leadership in the face of all that is happening to the country. “He doesn’t need to be told that he is presiding over a deeply divided nation.”
The Party also acknowledged and endorsed information of a planned peaceful protest by a group of Liberians, “the Council of Patriots” on June 7, 2019.
According Chairman Zargo, the protest is meant to remind the government of the growing wave of economic hardship, uncontrollable corruption, flagrant constitutional violations, and mob violence, clamp down on non-adherents, across the country and proffer solutions towards mitigating these problems.
“We welcome the pending peaceful protest as it is a fundamental tenet of democracy for the people to freely assemble and petition their government when it is so required. Our decision is further informed by the demonstrated indifference the President and officials of this government continue to show in the face of the bruising economic hardship being faced by our people.
He said that LP being a party that is acclaimed for adherence to the rule of law and given the sad history of recent violent protests organized by the CDC while in opposition and during the recent Montserrado County by-elections in district 13, urged the organizers of the protest to remain peaceful and act in keeping with laws.
“During the course of the planning and implementation of the planned protest, the CDC-led Government must also take cognizance of its constitutional mandate to provide security for the protestors and constructively advert any plan by surrogates of the government to provoke violence as was done by Mayor Jefferson Koijee and his supporters in District 13. “Finally, we plead with the UN, EU, AU, ECOWAS and all our foreign partners, who invested so much in our peace process to keep eyes on the trend of events unfolding in our country; particularly the regrouping of former rebel commanders by the CDC-led government. As a nation and people, we have paid the hard price of civil unrest and detest any attempt to take our country back to its sad days.”