-But will the peace hold
Greenville, Sinoe County:-President George M. Weah responding to citizens’ petitions in Juarzon Statutory District in Sinoe County on Saturday revealed that the long running dispute between Senator J. Milton Teahjay and Representative Mathew Zarzar both of Sinoe have been resolved.
Mr. Weah informed the town hall meeting as the citizens erupted intocelebrations that the two men who hailed from two of the biggest tribes in the area have embraced and buried their ashes.
President Weah: “I am happy to see old man (Mathew) Zarzar and my brother (Milton) Teahjay shaking hands after we spoke. And coming here to thank you for reposing confidence in us, I think this is a success story- that we came here in Sinoe and today is the first time I am seeing these two gentlemen hugging each other.”
“I have sat with them and even before my face they want to throw blow. But thank God I am always in the middle so, they can’t throw blow because if one of them throw blow it will hit me. And I say to them no,no, no. But I am happy that today the problem is resolved.
I listened to Senator Teahjay in Unification Town where we came from and that when we leave here today, we know that peace have been restored to Sinoe through your leaders.”
President Weah noted that it was important that the county embrace peace because in the absence of peace there can be no development.
Dispute between Sen. Teahjay from the Kru tribe and Rep. Zarzar from the Sarpo tribe has taken many forms and as such brought in division and confusion among the citizens of Sinoe. The division was further deepen when Sen. Teahjay was then the Superintendent of Sinoe and was allegedly embroiled into corruption.
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But will the peace hold
In 2013, as Superintendent, Sen. Teahjay was dragged before the House of Representative were he publicly apologized to Rep. Zarzar for his (Teahjahy’s) June 8, 2013 threat to beat up the county’s lawmaker.
Teahjay made the apology on when he appeared before the House of Representatives in full plenary in response to an official citation to give reasons why he should not be held in contempt for verbally threatening to assault a sitting lawmaker.
The apology rendered by Senator Teahjay apparently did not stopped the bitterness between the two rather it heightened the tension between the two men with their tribesmen being at the receiving end of their ugly fight.
In September 2015, angry citizens appearing on then UNMIL radio blamed their two leaders for promoting tribal politics in the county. They accused both men as being responsible for the tribal division being instigated among the local population.
As if that was not enough, Sen. Teahjay accused his colleague Rep. Zarzar of the same county of promoting tribal divide by trying to create a Sarpo County that would be detached from Sinoe.
Appearing on state radio ELBC Monday morning, August 17, 2015, Teahjay claimed Rep. Zarzar believes that by raising tribal issues, the government would partition Sinoe to create a tribal county called “Sarpo County” to separate the rest of the tribes from the Kru and “Americo-Liberians.”
“… No, we’ve been doing that, but the hypocrisy that characterizes Honorable Zarzar’s behavior is what is hurting the reconciliation process. He and you will talk something today, having an understanding; before you look he’s on tribal field,” Senator Teahjay alleged then.
But in a follow-up, Rep. Zarzar told The NewDawn via mobile phone that the truth about it was that there was no crime if anybody wanted to have a county, even though he challenged that Senator Teahjay had no evidence to show he was advocating for a new county to be created. By Othello B. Garblah
