Monrovia – One of Liberia’s opposition political parties, Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVEE), has frown on the most publicized protest expected to be held on June 7, 2019.
By Edwin G. Genoway, Jr (231886458910)[email protected]
MOVEE’s statement against the protest calls for a National Forum for Dialogue and asks June 7 protest organizers to tone down what it termed as “extremism and radicalism.”
The opposition party noted that the scar of the 14 years civil war remains “very fresh on the minds of the people.” They also accuse the Council of Patriots, organizers of the June 7 protest for “expressly reverberated war drums that have sunken Liberians and foreign residents into psychological trauma.”
“MOVEE as a party that deeply upholds democratic tenants and the rule of law will not sit and allow the country heads into a direction of our ugly past,” Robert Sammie, MOVEE Secretary General, told FrontPageAfrica.
Sammie disclosed that his party will march alongside anyone, including Counselor Arthur Johnson, who have similarly expression to move and pray the Honorable Supreme Court to prohibit the organizers of June 7 protest from putting people in the streets.
“MOVEE is doing so because from every analysis, there are glaring indications that the pending June 7 protest will not be peaceful, stemming from utterances of the organizers.”
“For example, Mr. Henry Costa, who is the lead proponent of the June 7 protest, is on tape issuing threatening statements: ‘If you think I am joking, I am going to buy guns, people will die and they will die at my instructions.’ Similarly, Representative Yeke Kolubah, another organizer, asserted, ‘In three months’ time, President George Manneh Weah will be history; we will move him.’”
Sammie also pointed out that the leadership of the Student Unification Party (SUP), a student political party on the University of Liberia, has said time without number, that the intent of the June 7 protest is to demand the resignation of President George M. Weah and that they will remain in the streets until said demand is met.
But the main organizers of the protest, under umbrella, “Council of Patriots,” has made it clear that the protest is not intended to call for the stepping down of President George Weah.
MOVEE said it believes that Liberians must come to the realization that it is a shared or collective responsibility of all citizens of Liberia and stakeholders to rise up to the occasion of uniting as citizens; irrespective of diversities. He indicated that the solution to the prevailing economic situations in the country does not lie in street protest; nor can Liberians find lasting solution to the national problems in confrontational engagement, combative political rhetoric and/or recrimination.