Monrovia – The opposition Liberty Party has expressed disappointment in the Liberia National Police (LNP) for what the party calls its refusal to address crucial security issues during the ongoing electoral process.
Report by Willie N. Tokpah – [email protected]
The LP vice chair for Political Affairs, Mr. Abraham Darius Dillon, said the LNP under the watch of Inspector Gregory Coleman has created some missteps in providing security for its partisans.
On a local radio talk show in Monrovia Monday, Dillon said it was unfortunate that the LNP will be frightening its partisans against the Liberty Party’s move to challenge the October 10, 2017 elections result.
According to him, the party’s challenge of the result has nothing to do with threatening Liberia’s peace but the LNP had begun instituting measures to frighten the party from taking stands against the results, while it is yet to produce a report on incident involving Liberty partisans on Ganta, Nimba County.
“When the police that cannot even muster the courage to release a report of an incident between Liberty and CDC in Sanniquelleh, during which people were stabbed almost to death for deliberate reasons.”
“It just a shame on the National Police and I am particularly disappointed in Gregory Coleman. I think they should do better,” Dillon said.
The Liberia National Police has declared the headquarters of the National Elections Commission a no-go zone in an effort to avoid any electoral violence.
But the Liberty Party vice chair for Political Affairs indicated that the LNP is creating a scene that portrays his party ugly when it is simply doing what is required by law.
He said the move by the police is geared towards preventing the party from seeking legal redress to their plights.
Dillon believes the current position of the LNP in the ongoing electoral process places them in a partisan stage, something he said questions their profession.
“We have built for ourselves a reputation of being mature, civil and respectful; we were not going to NEC to throw rocks. Our lawyers were going to submit our case today and partisan were to accompany them. One stone had not been thrown; no traffic had been created as a result of Liberty Party’s disagreement with the process and the result,” Dillon intoned.
Dillon further registered that; Liberty Party in the midst of challenging election result had remained peaceful, other than creating violent as being perceived by the police.
He questioned why the presence of the LNP had increased since Liberty Party spoke about carrying its complaint to the NEC.
Dillon, however, wants the Liberia National Police muster the courage of releasing the report from the Ganta incident rather than creating a scene that portrays the LP negatively.
Police spokesman Sam Collins said the information by Mr. Dillon is untrue; he stated that the NEC headquarters remains a no-go-zone in the interest of all Liberians.
He stated the assertion by Dillon is intended to drag the LNP into unprofessional practice.
“I think Dillon got it all wrong. The investigation is still ongoing and we are going to make these reports available as soon as all of the pieces of evidence are available,” Collins averred.
The police spokesman noted that the police is using all its professional skills and will not be compelled to do an unprofessional investigation that will bring its integrity to public disrepute.
The LNP Spokesman at the same time maintained that the deployment of LNP Officers at the NEC headquarters is in line with its two-year plan for the 2017 electoral process in Liberia.
“The National Elections Commission headquarters remains a no-go-zone for protesters and demonstrators and we are very clear on this, if you choose to call the LNP partisan police, you can go ahead.”