Monrovia – Bong County Senatorial aspirant Menipakei Dumoe says he is currently seeking an audience with the Sierra Leonean Embassy in Monrovia as he continues his request and appeal for the release of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway, Jr., [email protected]
Last Thursday, Mr. Dumoe, one of several contesting the Bong County Senatorial seat in the December 8 Midterm elections, paid a courtesy visit at the Sierra Leone Embassy near Monrovia where he submitted a letter requesting an audience with the Ambassador.
After submitting his communication to the Sierra Leonean Embassy near Monrovia, Dumoe told FrontPageAfrica that he hoped that former President Charles Taylor is a free man and living freely as an ex-president. “We hope that the people of Sierra Leone will unite with their Liberian brothers as we plead for the release of our former President Charles Taylor,” He said.
Mr. Dumoe is however calling on the governments of Liberia and Sierra Leone to reunite in order to have former president Charles Taylor released from prison.
Mr. Dumoe, who is also an official of the pressure group, Council of Patriot (CoP) has been trumpeting the release of the former President as a key campaign agenda.
The former President is currently serving a 50-year sentence in a UK prison.
Mr. Dumoe said he has officially written the embassy of Sierra Leone in Liberia and is also willing to go Sierra Leone to have talks with the people for former President Taylor’s release.
The Bong County Senatorial aspirant says that his letter to the Sierra Leone Ambassador is calling for reconciliation between the two countries. He noted that the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone are one family; as he is hopeful that his letter will be addressed. “The people of Sierra Leone are peaceful and we are brothers and sisters, I’m hopeful that my letter will fall on fertile ground. Sierra Leone holds no gross against Liberia.”
Mr. Dumoe lamented that it is sad that after 17 years, former President Taylor is the only Liberian paying the price for crimes committed during the civil war.
Mr. Dumoe said that the special court for Sierra Leone has already started setting people free, saying that seventeen years is sufficient time for former President Taylor to spend behind bars. “I am not buying sympathy from the people of Bong for the Senatorial elections. I sympathize with President Taylor as he has been suffering for so long. As a Liberian I would to see Charles Taylor live here just like former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and put the civil war behind us” Mr. Dumoe added.
Mr. Dumoe says he is also going to petition the Liberian Government starting with the National legislature onward to the Presidency that Liberia needs to engage on behalf of President Taylor because he is a citizen and he deserves the full protection of the Liberian Government.
Mr. Dumoe said that the Liberian Government needs to meet with their Sierra Leone counterpart to explore ways to set former president Charles Taylor free.
Recalling the leadership of the former President, Mr. Dumoe said that the former President was a visionary, adding that it was through his leadership the Ministry of Gender, the National Oil Company of Liberia, the Central Bank of Liberia amongst others were created and enacted into law. “When I spoke of the AK, I was using symbolism in my system but the Liberian Government illegally arrested me and detained me. But my lawyer, Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe disproved their claims.” Dumoe said.