BREWERVILLE – The wife of a Muslim cleric critical of the President George Weah has said she is living in fear, as her family continues to receive threats over her husband to continued criticisms.
Late last year, Mariama Dabah Kpaka told police in Brewerville that she had received messages from anonymous sources, threatening to get rid of family due to Imam Jeneka Turay’s criticism of the Liberian government. Turay has been one of President Weah’s fiercest critics on Facebook from the onset of his administration.
“The threats are still coming,” Kpaka said over the weekend. She said a strange vehicle had parked in her yard, with people in it acting suspiciously.
“I saw black jeep it was parking right here it had the blinker on, and there was a woman talking but I did not see the face,” she said. “A woman was talking, they were turned toward my place.”
Kpaka, who has changed residence several times since 2018, said the threats reduced after her complaint to the police. Not long after, she received a call from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
But she said the threats were returning as Turay’s pushed further with his campaign this year.
“I told him long time ago to stop it because he is not here and we are here” Kpaka said in an interview with this paper at her home. “We are being affected by his criticism so I told him to stop.”
A screenshot of a Facebook post threatening Imam Jeneka Turay over his stance on the Liberian government
Turay has expressed concern for his family’s security but has vowed to continue to speak out “because as a Liberian, it is my right.
“Not that I don’t love my wife and children but I am not going to be pushed into silence,” Turay, who has over 5,000 followers on Facebook, told this paper via WhatsApp. “I will not give in, not a single inch.”
Turay is living up to his vow. Within the last one month, he has criticized President Weah for pre-campaigning ahead of the October general and presidential elections, the manhandling of an activist at the Capitol Building in Monrovia, and President Weah’s alleged affiliation with former officials who were sanctioned by the United States government.
He, too, has continued to receive threats. One Facebook user named Zinnah Folley said, “[It’s] appearing to you that being the US makes you safe, right? You can say your worse in the name of advocacy but we will await you to return here and see what happens to you.”