By Ethel A Tweh
Nimba County Senator Jeremiah Koung said District #8 Representative Moses Acarous Gray misbehaved by challenging everyone and going on the campus of the University of Liberia all in the name of going to have lunch at the student center.
Speaking in the Senate’s Chambers a day after the bloody riot on the main campus of the state-run university, Sen. Koung said though the campus of the University of Liberia is in the District of Rep. Gray, he should have avoided the situation by going on the campus when the students have warned him not to go. “Even me here, when the students say I shouldn’t go on the campuses of the University of Liberia until I die, I will not go there.”
He said everyone pays taxes in Liberia, but only government officials are benefiting from the taxes by riding cars, living in comfortable homes and offices. Koung said one group of people can’t be living the best life and the others are suffering and people expect them to be happy.
“We all have that power to walk on the campus of the university with men and those students will run away but as lawmakers, we need to act in accordance with our role and use our leadership ability. Gray should have listened to everyone that talked to him and the numerous calls on the radio that people begged him not to go there and say, ‘God bless your, people talk to me that’s why I will leave it but next time your misbehave I will come there.’ He should have said this as a big bother and lawmaker, and nothing was going to happen to him. He was still going to win.” Sen. Koung noted.
Also speaking in the Senate Chambers, Grandkru County Senator Numene T.H. Bartekwa disclosed that the President of the University of Liberia called both Pro Temp Albert Chie and Speaker Chambers to tell Rep. Gray not to go on the campus saying, that the students got nothing to lose, and it will look ugly on the part of the lawmaker.
According to Sen. Bartekwa, the District #8 lawmaker ignored the calls and pleas of both the Speaker and Pro Temp and still went ahead to cause chaos on the campus of the University of Liberia.
Maryland County Sen. James Biney adjudged Rep. Gray as being in the wrong for going on the University campus when the students and other people had told him not to go. He said the campuses are for the students and they have the right to tell people who to go there and not to go there.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]
Grand Bassa County Senator Nyonblee Kangar Lawrence said when Rep. Gray entered the University campus with men, the police were there standing and when rocks were thrown and people got wounded, the police stood by and did nothing to put the situation under control.
She recalled that it happened to her and Teila Urey in District #15, when people wasted gas around the house and wanted to burn Teila to death, up to now there has been nothing the police have done from the investigation.
She also said that it happened again in District #13 when they went running a campaign for Cornelia Kruah Togba and the campaign was disrupted by the violence she had to seek safety in a stranger’s house, noting that up till now the police have not done anything about it. “What can we get from a CDC police. They will sit there and see violence and will not do anything about it.”
Giving his own experience, Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon said he has been banned from campus in 2021 by the Student Unification Party for a Facebook he made in 2014, before becoming a senator in 2020.
His post then was about the shortage of rice on the Liberian market at the time and he blamed the Progressives, the root of SUP for the crisis.
According to him, since then he has avoided the campus despite invitations from other students’ groups for fear that his presence there would cause chaos.
He said that booing in democracy is a sign of displeasure and cheering is a sign of acceptance. Dillion added that those same students booed at President Sirleaf before and she clapped for them, adding that she’s a democratic leader. He said as leaders they should be open to criticism and not only praise.
