Nobody Will Spoil Our Peace -Ellen

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has vowed that Liberia’s 12 years of stability since the signing of the Accra Peace Deal will not be reversed.

She told a gathering in the northern Liberian city of Sanniquellie, Nimba County during a ground breaking ceremony that nobody will spoil the 12 consecutive years of peace to which every citizen has contributed.

The ground breaking ceremony was intended to kick start the construction of a judicial complex in a county where the decade long civil war that ravaged the country began.

The president told her audience that the rule of law is a tool in preserving the peace, something she noted that everyone must commit to.

Nimba recently experienced one of the worst post war violence following the mysterious death of two motorcyclists. This prompted a violent demonstration that led to the death and destruction of several properties worth millions of dollars in the county. The riot came months after another one led to the destruction and looting of equipments worth also worth millions of United States Dollars at the Mittal Steel concession over social development benefits.

Mrs. Sirleaf expressed sympathy to entrepreneurs in Nimba whose properties were destroyed in violent riots perpetrated by angry mobs. She noted that the crust of her recent nation-wide address prior to her arrival in Nimba was that together the nation achieved 12 consecutive years of peace, as well as to sound a caveat that “nobody

will spoil it for us.”

She indicated that the county, community and nation at large move when individuals do something to improve their living conditions and environment, commending entrepreneurs in Nimba who have chosen to spent their money developing the county, saying “these are the people we want to honor.”

The president assured entrepreneurs who felt victim of such riots that the matter regarding the destruction of their properties will be addressed; and that the government will ensure that such ugly situation does not happen again.

Mrs. Sirleaf said she was very pleased about the ground-breaking for the court complex in Sannigullie, acknowledging that it is something that would accommodate the totality of the people in Nimba County.

President Sirleaf described Sanniquellie as a historic city, while recalling how the meetings for the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (now AU) started there, and hoped that it does not lost its historic posture.

The President, however, noted that it was saddened that the historic structure in Sanniquellie was a bit dilapidated now, but said she “thought” it could be reconstructed during the July 26 [2016] celebrations so that its historic posture will not vanish.

She finally pleaded with the teachers of Nimba County to teach the young people of the significance of Sanniquellie and the strength of today’s African Union which she traced back to some of the debates that took place in Sanniquellie.

Chief Justice Francis S. Korkpor, Sr. said the ground-breaking ceremony was quite necessary on grounds that Nimba Count was a very large county with a fast-growing population on case load.

According to Chief Justice Korkpor, other subordinate courts in and around Sanniquellie were situated in rented private facilities not suitable for judicial proceedings, fearing that property owners were potential party litigants before the court.

“This is not good for the image and independence of the Judiciary,” Chief Justice Korkpor intimated.

By Winston W. Parley-Edited by George Barpeen and Othello B. Garblah