Tension might stall transition

The opposition Liberty Party or LP is warning its compatriots and government to keep the country quiet as Liberia moves towards the 2017 presidential elections, citing fears that a group of people might seize the moment and refuse to go for election if tension and insurrection persist.

“… Like Barcus Matthews said in 1983, we have to keep this country quiet as we move in the direction of election because we don’t want to create the platform where a group of people will come and seize the
moment and say because there’s tension, there is insurrection, well we cannot go to election,” Liberty Party Secretary General Jacob Smith warned Wednesday, March 2 on Prime Fm 105.5.

“I think we should move cautiously, we who are in the political sphere. Let’s conduct ourselves within the space of civility and let’s wait until election comes and let’s have a peaceful transition in this country,” Mr. Smith said further.

The LP chief scribe argued that the state must move cautiously because the deaths of former Liberia Petroleum Refining Company or LPRC boss Mr. Harry Greaves and others have already generated so much tension here, suggesting that government cannot add onto that by going about arresting and imprisoning people.

Though he said the LP was happy that Vandala Patricks has been released on cash bond, he however distanced the LP from the statement read by the self-proclaimed advocate which landed him in jail after linking President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her government to alleged several murders of people including Mr. Greaves and Cllr. Michael Allison.

Government has indicted Patricks with sedition and criminal libel against the president, and arrested Achie Sannoh who was among several protesters that besieged the Temple of Justice to demand Patricks’ release on Monday when he was expected to appear in court.

Criminal Court “A” ordered Patricks’ release on Tuesday after his lawyer Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe secured a cash bond of L$267,000; but it is not clear yet when the case will be assigned. Presidential hopeful businessman Simeon Freeman fled the country after accusing government of having ten names of opponents on death list.

By Winston W. Parley-Edited by Othello B.Garblah