Who’s telling the truth?

It appears that the public here is yet to get the actual happenings that resulted to the bloody clash between partisans of the Coalition for Democratic Change of Montserrado County Senator George Manneh Weah and partisans of the Liberty Party of Cllr. Charles Brumskine, which left two LP partisans reportedly stabbed on Wednesday, 20 September in Sanniquelle, Nimba County.

According to the Vice Standard Bearer of the Liberty Party, Mr. Harrison Karnwea, who hails from the same county, officials of the party had earlier informed police assigned in the county about its countywide tour and the request was subsequently granted.

But to the dismay of the LP, on Wednesday morning, September 20, while the campaign program was in the heap of it, about 30 cars convoy carrying CDC standard bearer Weah was insight from the last bridge before the welcome stage of the city, the police then immediately tried to intervene by appealing to the CDC to take a detour, something CDC partisans reportedly refused and violently forced their way into Sanniqellie main street right in front of the Liberty Party local office, attempting to drive thru to Yekepa.

The Liberty Party office is directly opposite the Presidential Palace in Sanniquelle, Nimba County.

Upon seeing the interaction between the police and the CDC, some partisans of the Liberty Party reportedly blocked the road leading to Yekepa, something that might had angered over zealous partisans of the CDC, an eye witness said.

Police appealed to the officials of the Liberty Party to move their vehicles toward their office in order to create passage for the CDC, but the partisans refused, the eye witness added.

However, CDC Campaign Manager, Professor Wilson Tarpeh, narrates that upon approaching the county’s capital, their advance team headed by Mulbah Morlu and Montserrado County Representative Thomas Fallah informed the party hierarchy that Liberty Party partisans had blocked the main road with vehicles.

Professor Tarpeh continues that while the police was trying to create corridor for common grounds, some partisans of the Liberty Party allegedly threw stones at the CDC convoy, exacerbating tension between the two parties.

According to him, battle cry of the CDC helped in calming the situation, and cars belonging to the Liberty Party that were used to block the road were removed peacefully and transferred to the police station.

But the Vice Chairman for Operations of the Liberty Party, Mr. Abraham Darious Dillon in his accounts accuses CDC partisans of damaging cars belonging to the LP, including Public Address System, and took away their generator that was supplying power during the program besides inflicting bodily harms on some LP partisans. He laments that some the partisans are undergoing medical treatment in the government hospital in the county.

CDC Deputy Secretary-General Samora Wolokollie, denies. Meanwhile, police in Nimba County say they are thoroughly investigating the matter and findings will be made public in the soonest possible time.

However, despite claims by the LP that it had earlier written the National Elections Commission about its campaign rallies in Nimba, NEC Spokesman Henry Flomo, notes that to his knowledge, out of the 20 presidential contestants in race, only the Unity Party and the Coalition for Democratic Change have submitted schedules of their campaign activities to the commission to enable the electoral house control movement in order to avoid clashes involving rival contenders.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor-Editing by Jonathan Browne