Police face demonstrators

Protestors erect roadblock

Commuters trekking

Placard

Cocopa unrest intensifies
Aggrieved employees of the Cocopa Rubber Plantation in Nimba County intensified their strike, erecting roadblocks and preventing vehicles and pedestrians from entering the plantation for the third time this year in demand of five months’ salaries.

The aggrieved workers told our Nimba County correspondent that since October 2015 management has been unable to pay them their just salaries, which has brought them untold hardship. The NewDawn has gathered that since the civil war ended in Liberia, the plantation has been faced with series of demonstrations, resulting to change management.

Members of the Cocopa Workers Union barricaded the main entry to the plantation over the weekend, obstructing free movement. Some of the aggrieved employees, who spoke to our correspondent, lamented that their children have been out of school and the only clinic at the plantation is shutdown, along with the administrative building in demand of salaries.

The entire plantation was in disarray with no one being allowed to enter or leave the premises, but armed officers of the Police Support Unit (PSU) and the Emergency Response Unit of the Liberia National Police subsequently cleared the road between Nimbaand Southeast Liberia where the protestors had erected roadblock.

The riot, which lasted for a day, was finally brought under control by Senators Prince Y. Johnson and Thomas Grupee as well as ex-rebel general and businessman Roland Duo, who called on the aggrieved workers to do away with violence, and instead, seek redress thru the law.

By Franklin Doloquee, Nimba-Editing by Jonathan Browne