(Monrovia, July 11, 2024:) A human rights group is appealing to President Joseph N. Boakai to withdraw the recent appointment of Amb. Al-Hassan Conteh as Acting President of the University of Liberia (UL). The group is at the same time begging the President to not consider Dr. Conteh’s reported pending appointment to the United States as Liberia’s Ambassador.
By Selma Lomax, [email protected]
March For Justice, noted for its firm stance of advocacy against human rights and sexual abuses particularly rape, during a press conference held in Monrovia on Thursday, July 11, 2024 referenced the Wednesday’s UL protest as one reason why Ambassador Conteh’s appointment is a recipe for chaos for the smooth running of the state-run university.
“In order for the thousands of Liberian students to have a conducive learning atmosphere, we appeal for the President to withdraw Dr Conteh’s appointment as head of an interim management team”, the head of the group, Mr. Titus B. Pakalah noted.
The group stated that even more worrisome is the terrifying report that President Boakai has already reportedly picked Amb. Conteh to be Liberia’s Ambassador to the United States: “But very importantly, we want to use this time to kindly remind President Boakai that Amb. Conteh remains on record for intentionally supervising and compromising a rape case of a 7-year-old Liberian girl right on the premises of our Liberian Diplomatic Mission in Abuja, the Federal Republic of Nigeria where he has been ambassador for over the past 15 years.”
In the wake of recent financial and administrative crises at the University of Liberia, President Boakai a few weeks ago relieved Dr. Julius Nelson as President of the UL and appointed Amb. Conteh as the Acting President of the Interim Management Team of the state-run university.
But some students of the university on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 protested on the UL’s Capitol Hill Campus, rejecting the appointment of the Dr. Conteh-led interim management team of the University. The students’ protest disrupted normal activities as motorists and pedestrians experienced inconveniences due to road blocks the angry students set.
In the March For Justice’s statement, the group recalled that Liberia is yet to even recover from the embarrassing news of when Liberia’s former ambassador to the very United States reportedly sexually harassed a female staff at its United Nations Permanent Mission in New York.
“And when that unfortunate sexual abuse of that minor became public, Amb. Conteh provided cogent argument in defense of the rapists instead of even showing empathy to the 7-year-old pitiful victim”, the group recalls.
The group continues, “An Al-Hassan Conteh who couldn’t intervene in a rape case which almost took the life of an innocent seven year-old Liberian girl should not be heading even if temporarily the UL where we have thousands of our female compatriots pursuing quality tertiary education. Even worse, an Al-Hassan Conteh who could only provide protection for the rapists of a seven year-old girl and not the victim herself cannot be the ambassador to our country’s foremost traditional ally, the United States.”
It can be recalled that March For Justice in late 2021 staged series of protests against Amb. Conteh, calling on the then ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government to recall him on count of his covering up of a grave sexual abuse case of a seven year old Liberian girl on the premises of the Liberian Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria.
“In 2021, we gathered the medical report from the Nigerian Police Medical Center in Abuja which confirmed the gang rape of the minor. We filed a formal complaint to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection but no one could listen to us since Amb. Conteh was part of a political power system. We led several indoor meetings and sit-in actions explaining our discontentment, but there were extreme reluctance from the George Weah Administration to take any meaningful action against the very ambassador nor the rapists”, the group statement reads.
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