Buchanan – Montserrado County’s District # 10 Representative Yekeh Kolubah was on Sunday, May 12, barricaded by several youths of Buchanan, as word spread that the lawmaker was in the port city to rally support for the planned June 7 protest.
Report by Elton W. Tiah, Contributor
The young men had planned to thwart his campaign and were seen outside a popular hotel, where the Hon. Kolubah was lodging.
Representative Kolubah arrived in Buchanan during the evening hours of Saturday, May 11, but by early Sunday morning scores of young people had gathered outside the hotel, chanting anti-June 7 protest slogans.
The lawmaker, who has been critical of the CDC-led government policies, is a member of the Council of Patriots – a conglomeration of politicians and other actors leading the June 7 protest, which they have dubbed the Save The State protest.
Hon. Kolubah has repeated announced that he will embark on a nationwide sensitization campaign to inform Liberians about the significance of the protest so as to avert potential violence and disturbance of the peace.
However, he has faced cautions from several others opposing the protest, with one of those being the Superintendent of Grand Gedeh County who reportedly warned the lawmaker that he will not be welcomed to the county if he attempts campaigning there for the protest.
In Buchanan city, when the protesting youth chanted aganist him, a smiling and calm Rep. Kolubah was seen making his way out of the hotel.
He later told FrontPageAfrica that his visit to the county had no link to the June 7 planned protest while accusing the county superintendent of orchestrating the protest against his presence in the county.
“I came to my sister Nyonblee Kangar Lawrence but these few handfuls of young people were sent by the County Superintendent Janjay Baikpeh to see me because some of them has not seen me before “, Kolubah asserted.
“I will be coming to Bassa Saturday, May 18, 2019, to tell the people of Bassa the significance of the protest”.
Kolubah said, “Superintendent Baikpeh needs to tell his president the people are suffering and stop fooling the people to stand in the streets”.
When contacted, the county superintendent denied Hon. Kolubah’s claim, saying, “on no occasion, I ever sent people to Hotel Buchanan”, terming that Hon. Kolubah’s allegation is “false and misleading”.
“I have a piece of job to do which is to work for the development of Grand Bassa County. If I want to put people together, I will do so for development purposes not for disturbance,” Baikpeh added.
“I am disappointed in Rep. Kolubah. If I have done something wrong, he has the right to invite me to the Capitol building and not to falsely damage my character.”
He mentioned that Rep. Kolubah needs to apologize to him for what he termed as “for misleading the public”.
There were mixed reactions coming from several of those standing outside the hotel, as the drama unfolded.
Samuel Johnson, a resident of the city who witnessed the incident, told FrontPageAfrica that he and his colleagues went to the Hotel Buchanan to see Hon Kolubah and not for violence.
“Yekeh is my favorite lawmaker, I’m not part of those paid agents who have come to disturb themselves thinking that they have come to disturb our leader”, Johnson mentioned.
At the same time, Foday Moore, who was among those chanting anti-Yeke’s slogans, told reporters that they had gone to the hotel to stop Hon. Kolubah from spreading protest messages in the county.
“Yekeh Kolubah is an old rebel and we will not allow him to mislead our peaceful citizens,” Moore taunted.
“We will resist Yekeh even if he comes Saturday. Nobody paid us; we are peaceful citizens will not allow that in Bassa.”
Later, the tough-talking lawmaker was escorted by Grand Bassa County District #3 Representative Matthew Joe as he exited the city for Monrovia.