Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar – 0776819983/0880-361116/life2short4some@yahoo.com
Monrovia, Liberia – In reaction to series of upheavals in Liberia in recent times, the Economic Freedom Fighters of Liberia (EFFL), has declared that the country is noisy and divided than at any given time in its history, blaming the situation on President George Weah, who the group says is unqualified to govern well.
The statement from EFFL comes amid squabbles over the recent removal of former Supreme Court Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh, in an impeachment proceeding viewed by many as being unconstitutional and a one politically motivated.
The Ja’neh impeachment process witnessed Liberians divided on two fronts, with others being in favor while others vehemently opposed the move which was widely considered political rather than being constitutional.
During the impeachment process, hate for one another heightened among Liberians, many of whom made it public on social media and through series of street protests, with hate messages, including death threats and spewing out of invective becoming the order of the day for a better part of the duration of the Ja’neh’s removal process.
Hardly had the Ja’neh issue subsided when bands of disadvantaged Liberians locally known as “zogos” took the country by storm in a gang war that led to the death of at least one person, and a bout of panicking civil disturbances both in the Paynesville and Fiamah Communities.
However, the gang war episode, though still fresh on the minds of Liberians, is now being replaced by ongoing hullabaloo over calls to arrest, suspend and/or expel Montserrado County District #10 Representative Yekeh Kolubah, for comments attributed to him, which are said to be seditious, according to his colleague Representative Acarous Gray of the ruling CDC and Montserrado County Attorney, Cllr. Edwin Kla Martin, for which both men and a certain segment of the society are calling for Rep Yekeh’s arrest, detention, suspension and/or expulsion respectively, from the Legislature as a member of the House of Representatives.
A group of former soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia and ex-militia “generals” who fought for various warring factions during Liberia’s bloody civil war recently ordered Rep Yekeh to turn himself in to their Benson Street office.
The ex-rebel generals have given Rep Yekeh, himself a former rebel “general” of the erstwhile National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), a 72-hour ultimatum to turn himself over to their office, threatening that failure on his part, they would do so forcibly.
But on Wednesday, EFFL Commander-In-Chief Emmanuel Gonquoi told reporters at Rep Yekeh’s Old Road Community residence, where he said he had gone in solidarity with the Montserrado County lawmaker, who is being threatened with arrest by both a band of former rebel “generals” and the Government of Liberia, that by the ex-rebels issuing an arrest threat against a sitting lawmaker, without government countering their ultimatum given the representative, it suggests that the Weah-led government is not serious and is not credible.
“Those who call themselves ex-generals, we are not in the period of war. The war has come and gone – they are no more generals. So if they believe that they have the authority to even have press conference to call for Honorable Kolubah to turn himself over in the period of 72-hours, I think if this government was serious and this government was credible, by now they should be talking about the arrest of those former generals,” Gonquoi said.
He averred that government’s inaction regarding the former militia “generals” threat of arrest issued against Rep Yekeh is a signal that the country is unstable, and that President Weah and his followers are unqualified to govern Liberia well.
“Because they are unqualified they are allowing ex-generals to speak. Ex-generals are not part of the security apparatus of our country. They should not in any way be talking about the arrest of a lawmaker. This is wrong, we must stop this. If the president wants to govern this country, he must begin a process of bringing the country together. If the president wants a bitter Liberia, then of course he will get a bitter Liberia!” Gonquoi stressed.
When contacted, deputy presidential press secretary Smith Toby said he could not respond to the EFFL Commander-In-Chief because he (Toby) had not personally listened to CIC Gonquoi’s assertions. President Weah has also not made any public statement regarding the uneasiness that the country has been engulfed into in recent times.
Howbeit, Gonquoi intimated that President Weah, who previously served as Peace Ambassador during the regime of his predecessor, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, whose leadership had its share of troubling times, is presiding over a country that is even noisier.
“He served as peace ambassador, the country is even more noisier. The country is divided. He must focus on uniting the people of the Republic of Liberia. The country is divided. If he fails to unite the country and he feels he can divide the country, and he and his people believe they can give us a sour Liberia, we can equally give him a sour presidency, we can promise him that,” Gonquoi stated.
Refuting claims that he and his likes are those bend on tarnishing the image of the government, by seeing nothing good that it does, Gonquoi said Liberia is drowning because President Weah and his team of leaders and supporters want the country to drown.
“So, we will help them. We want this country to move forward. We want investors to come here to create jobs for the people. There is too much hopelessness in the country; young people graduating from colleges [and] they don’t have opportunity,” he added.
He said the government should direct it focus at investing in the country’s agricultural sector to create more jobs, as well as focus on what he calls reinventing the wheel towards even reducing the foreign exchange rate of U.S. dollar against the Liberian dollar, which has leaped to an astronomical high of 166 Liberian dollar to just a single US dollar on the local market.
“We should be focusing on how we can move our country [forward]. We cannot be focusing on how we will tarnish the image of our country out there. What the government is doing is that they are tarnishing the reputation of our country out there. They are bringing our country back to zero, and we as patriots in our country, we will not allow this to happen,” Gonquoi noted.
“We will stand up for our country. We will stand up for the voiceless. We will do everything we can do in the ambiance of the law to make sure that civility returns to this country,” he said.
He continued: “We are not tarnishing the image of the government. We are working with the government. We are doing what we can do to ensure that the government succeeds. But what is happening is that the government is not interested in itself succeeding. What we see in our country is more of a militia style government. We see the government parading like a militia group of people running a country. We must return to a governmental credential. We cannot continue to govern our country the way we are currently governing the country.”
“So we are here, and I can assure you that Honorable Yekeh Kolubah will not be arrested. He will not be tempered with. We will do everything. We will increase his security – because what this government wants us to do now is for us to have our own security – so we will increase his security,” CIC Gonquoi added.
He noted that the EFFL believes that the rights of all Liberians should be protected, indicating that his group is of the belief the Weah-led government is encroaching on the rights of Rep Yekeh.
“So we are here in solidarity and to assure him and his family that he will not be arrested. We will do everything to protect him. He will not be arrested – he will go nowhere, because those who are calling for his arrest lack the moral credentials to call for his arrest,” he pointed out.
Asked how would the EFFL, comprising unarmed citizens, orchestrate its resistance of the lawmaker’s arrest, CIC Gonquoi averred that in a civilize democracy the citizens have the right to exercise their democratic franchise, stating that one of those ingredients in democracy is for the citizens to be able to do what they can do within the confines of the Constitution of Liberia.
Said Gonquoi: “If we realize that armed officers or former generals as they call themselves come here to Honorable Yekeh Kolubah premises in the name of effectuating any arrest, we will equally respond. Because it is under our constitutional responsibility to respond as well – so, we will respond.”
“We are here in solidarity, any attempt on the part of the government to effectuate any arrest, there will be equal and opposite reaction. We will do what we can do to restore the credibility of our country. We will not allow that,” said CIC Gonquoi.
Responding to question as to what the EFFL will do regarding a remark from Montserrado County District #5 Representative, Thomas Fallah, that he would initiate a process to either suspend or expel Rep Yekeh from the Legislature, Gonquoi said: “I challenge any man that will lead a process that will talk about removing Yekeh Kolubah from the Capitol Building – we can only promise them that there will be no session as well. It means that we will go to the Legislature and make sure that there is no session as well.”
