Opposition representative candidate for Montserrado District #15 Telia Urey complains here that she feels threatened by President George Manneh Weah’s call for his supporters to flog her, recalling how his supporters allegedly threw petrol bombs in the house of late Montserrado County Senator Geraldine Doe – Sherif years back.
Candidate Telia Urey, a daughter of opposition All Liberian Party (ALP) political leader Benoni Urey told the Costa Show in Monrovia Monday, 24 June that she takes President Weah’s comments against her seriously and she has not slept well for the past two nights leading to her appearance on the local talk show.
“Because I am in fear. When you have the president telling his people that we are wicked, that we are killers, that we are thieves, telling his people ‘flog that little girl,’ we don’t know what that means. It could mean physically flog me,” Madam Urey says.
“I don’t understand what it means and we all saw what happened to [late Montserrado Senator] Geraldine Doe – Sheriff here when they were throwing petrol bombs in her house,” Madam Urey recalls.
Concerning President Weah’s claims that the Ureys are killers, Telia challenges the president to bring the War Crimes Court that the opposition has been advocating for her, reminding him that sits next to defunct Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) rebel leader, now Nimba County Senator Prince Yormie Johnson who hates call for War Crimes Court.
What appears to puzzle Madam Urey more about President Weah’s attack against her is that she observes that he declares himself a “Feminist – in – Chief, and he had just spoken at an event where his wife First Lady Clar Weah launched a pro – women campaign dubbed “She’s You Movement.”
According to Madam Urey, she feels very bad at the way President Weah addresses her just after launching the She’s You Movement, suggesting that he is trying to demean, bully and scare her from being involved in the election process by referring to her as a “Little Girl.”
“Obviously I felt very bad, I felt sad, I was embarrassed not only personally but for the country, for him you know, because he stooped to a level that I didn’t believe he would ever stoop to,” she says.
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Beyond what she sees as threat against her by President Weah, Madam Urey also expresses concern that the president has also vowed that she can never win the electoral process in which she is investing a lot including resources, time and emotion.
She says the president’s comment bothers her because he controls the National Elections Commission (NEC) and the government.
However Madam Urey criticizes President Weah for failing to say what his two candidates in the Montserrado Senatorial and District #15 by – elections will do, noting that it is a repeat of what he did in the 2017 presidential campaign.
“And this is a complete repeat of what he did during his campaign. He didn’t tell people anything that he would do and definitely now he’s doing nothing,” Madam Urey claims.
She wonders if President Weah is just telling Liberians to elect people based on hate and divisiveness.
Pointing out some contradictions in the president’s assertions about corruption in the past government, Madam Urey wonders how Mr. Weah could talk about 12 years of stealing in government and yet he has all of the former officials sitting next to him including his recent appointment of indicted former House Speaker Alex Tyler.
Mr. Weah withdrew Mr. Tyler’s appointment last week following public outcry here because the appointee and several past and present officials are still undergoing trial for economic sabotage in the Sable Mining case caused by a report by global watchdog group Global Witness since former President Ellen Johnson – Sirleaf’s regime.
Touching issues affecting Montserrado District #15, Madam Urey says education, health care, poverty, youth unemployment and hunger are not unique to the district she seeks to represent, but they affect the country at large.
However she says her primary focus in giving back to her people is creating opportunities for investments to create jobs for the young people in the district as the only way of fighting poverty.
In addition she vows to give back to the people of the district one hundred percent of her salary, allowance and any other benefits she gets as a lawmaker when elected.By Winston W. Parley
