MONROVIA – In the wake of numerous electoral violence and lawlessness in the country, the Chairman of the House’s Committee on Judiciary, Representative Fonati Koffa says Liberia is gradually turning into violent nation.
Lawmaker Koffa is representing the people of electoral district # 2 in Grand Kru County at the 54th National Legislature.
Representative Koffa said the numerous waves of violence in the country must be condemned by all well-meaning Liberians.
He made these comments in an exclusive interview with FrontPageAfrica on Sunday, August 19, 2019 at his Brewerville retreat, outside Monrovia
According to him, protest is not the way forward to finding solutions to problems.
He noted that deliberate provocations should not be evoked or instigated by politicians or others to ignite protest or violence in order to score political marks.
The Grand Kru County lawmaker maintained that there is intensity of emotions that has developed among Liberians, by which they continue to take the law into their hands as means of finding remedies to their problems or disenchantments.
Representative Koffa called on supporters of political parties and other groupings to denounce violence in the country.
He added that the peace and stability of Liberia lie in the hands of all citizens, and as such, Liberians should not do anything to derail the present level of peace that they all enjoy.
According to the Grand Kru County lawmaker, no amount of political speeches or actions warrant the evoking of violence.
Representative Koffa added that Liberia will be taking steps backward if the unprecedented wave of violence continues in the nation.
“There’s an intensity of emotion that have developed; we are slowly or maybe rapidly becoming a protest nation. When we are aggrieved, people protest. I feel aggrieved, I go protest and start to throw rocks. We have to condemn and I have to condemn violence no matter who it comes from; because we have seen what violence does in this country. I don’t think even in an electoral context speech or non-violent conduct should give rise to any kind of violence. At the same time, deliberate provocation to evoke violence cannot be seen as a means to accomplish political points. We must condemn the violence, we must tell all of our supporters that this is something not debatable; if we continue down this path, we will end up in a very difficult situation; where we don’t want to be before, and where we came from it’s like taking one step forward and two steps backward. We know what violence does, we know what it is, we know what has happened to this country, and whatever we are feeling now is a result of over ten years of civil wars in which we were at each other throat. What did it bring us? Nothing,” Cllr. Koffa stated.
Violence in recent times
Recently, the Deputy Director for Operations of the Liberia National Police (LNP), Marvin Sackor was attacked and humiliated by some partisans of the CDC in Congo Town, outside Monrovia.
Sackor was trying to prevent partisans of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change from marching on a victory celebration of opposition candidate Abraham Darius Dillon at the headquarters of the Liberty Party.
The attack on Sackor came shortly after a riling speech by the party’s youth chair and Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee, who threatened that his party will trade fire for fire with anyone staging protest against the government.
Said Mr. Koijee: “The youth league will protect our democracy, we will be on the front burner, we will lead our people like we led them before. Any day that would be announced here by anyone, we want to say to you that similar day would be announced by us. And wheresoever they are, we would also be there and we would meet in flesh and blood.”
Mr. Koijee explained that the decision has met the consensus of the party’s youth league. “Make no mistake to think that because we bear certain titles or bear certain space in government, that position has taken from us our true identity. What we fought for, we will not sit here as spectators and watch it come under attack. Those who believed that nothing good could ever come under our watch, we want to say moving forward when there is any called demonstration – as lawmakers lead, we want to say in our official capacity, whether you call me mayor or you call me youth chair person, we want to assure the public and the international community that we will be protectors of our democracy, we would lead such forces also.”
Though the LNP has launched an investigation into the attack on its Deputy, the outcome or findings of the investigation are yet to be released to the public.
Furthermore, the results of the investigation into last year’s incident in the District No. 13 representative by-elections after clashes led to several being wounded when supporters of Cornelia Kruah-Togba, representing the tripartite arrangement between Unity Party, Liberty Party and the Alternative National Congress in the District No. 13 By-Elections came under attack from supporters of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change led by Koijee. Kruah was contesting the District 13 electoral seat on the Liberty Party ticket. She’s the daughter of Liberia’s Post and Telecommunication Minister, Cooper Kruah.
During the melee, Koijee, Representative Solomon George and a team of militants who were to launch the campaign of the CDC candidate, John J. Weah, in Iron Factory, reportedly invaded the camp of Cornelia in Gardnersville where she was also having her campaign activities ongoing, thereby causing commotion. Ms. Kruah filed a complaint to the LNP and an investigation was reportedly ordered but nothing has been heard of since.
On June 24, 2019, an LNP officer reportedly used discharged live ammunitions on innocent bystanders protesting over ritualistic killings, an increasing sense of betrayal by those at the helm of power is forcing Liberians to take matters in their own hands in pursuit of justice in Kingsville, Margibi County.
Eyewitnesses say at least one person died as a result of the shooting when two others in critical condition after riot police officers reportedly shot at protesters in the Kingsville community.
The protesters began blocking the roads leading to Margibi and Bong County since Monday, demanding justice for the mysterious death of two children who went missing few weeks ago.
Elijah Kpoluma and Thomas Kollie, believed to be between 10 and 11 years reportedly went missing since May 30 and 31, 2019.
Aggrieved Kingsville citizens complained that the missing children were later found with parts extracted from their bodies.
The bodies of the two children were discovered on June 3, 2019 in the bushes of Kingsville, Montserrado County hours after they were sent on Thursday, May 30 and Friday, May 31, 2019 by their parents to sell but did not return home and were declared missing.
Police reportedly arrested four persons from the community, said to be linked to the act. However, those persons were reportedly released due to lack of evidence, according to the police.
Aggrieved residents organized a street protest to get attention from the national government.
The protesters said Police Support Unit Officers arrived at the scene, removed the road block and began engaging them. According to eyewitnesses, few minutes of tussle, police officers began to shoot at them, resulting to one person dead and other two persons injured.
Prior to the pronouncement of preliminary results of the Montserrado County combines by-elections by the National Elections Commission (NEC), supporters of the two leading candidates in the race, began a violent clash resulting in the news of 14 persons on both sides being wounded, some seriously.
At the moment, the frontrunner, Mr. Abraham Darius Dillon, is running on the ticket of the opposition Liberty Party, which is in collaboration with other opposition parties, including Alternative National Congress, All Liberian Party and Unity Party.
Dillon, who leads the race with 53,270 votes (53.88%) is being followed in a distant second by the ruling party’s candidate, Ms. Paulita C. C. Wie with 36,531 (36.95%). However, the Elections Commission has so far announced at least 51.62% of the total polling places in the county. As more results come in from the remaining polling places, the numbers are going to shift and maybe positions, too.
Few minutes before Cllr. Jerome George Korkoya, Chairman, NEC, began to make the official announcement, the violence erupted between the supporters of CDC and the four collaborating political parties’ partisans, who gathered in the compound of the headquarters of the Liberty Party to begin early celebrations ahead of the pronouncement.
The Chairman of the four collaborating political parties, Mr. Benoni W. Urey, told FrontPageAfrica that during the melee, at least 11 persons got wounded. Urey claimed that police fired live bullets which allegedly resulted into one person being shot in the leg by the riot police officers, who tried to restore calm between the rioters.
Chairman Urey also accused partisans of the CDC for instigating the violence. Stones and other missiles flew from both ends of the divide as people delved for cover.
“We were here at our party headquarters jubilating and merry making when some thugs of the CDC came and started throwing stones and fighting our partisans, when the violence broke out, the riot police came and fired live bullets and some of our people got wounded, 11 of them while one of our partisans got shot in the leg,” he explained.
But the spokesman of the Liberia National Police, Mr. Moses Carter rubbished the claims by Urey that shooting occurred during the clashes between partisans of the CDC and the opposition collaborating parties.
Carter explained in a mobile phone interview that as per their protocol, no police officer bearing firearm is allowed to be in such protest zone. However, it seems he forgot to know that there were armed police officers in Kingville recently and there were also armed police officers at the June 7 #SavetheState protest.
Recently, at the NEC headquarters violent protest ensued between supporters of Telia Urey and Abu Bana Kamara, resulting to injuries and the destruction of a vehicle assigned to Unity Party Assistant Secretary General for Press and Publicity, Mo Ali.
Police launched an investigation into the incident, but the findings are yet to be released to the public.
On Saturday, August 17, 2019, the vehicle belonging to the leading candidate in the just ended Representative by-election in district 15, Montserrado County was set ablaze by unknown persons.
Several persons reportedly sustained injuries.
President George Weah ordered the Liberia National Police (LNP), and Justice Minister Cllr. Frank Musa Dean to launch an immediate investigation into the incident.