The Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) says no degree of threats and intimidation by government-sponsored thugs will stop the December 17 peaceful rally planned outside the SKD Sports Complex in Paynesville, Monrovia.
Ambassador Lewis Brown said the rally is intended for the suffering masses, and those injured by the failed and inept administration of President George Weah to amplify their demands for good governance and to end the worsening economic conditions in the country.
Mr. Brown, who heads the 2023 Presidential Campaign Team of Mr. Alexander Cummings, has come under heap of attacks and criticisms by public officials, since he announced the planned peaceful rally, slated for December 17, in Monrovia.
Group of government sponsored thugs, under the command of Monrovia City Mayor, Jefferson Koijee, on Monday night, December 5, launched a fierce attack on and stoned the vehicle of Mr. Brown, while leaving a radio station, on Capitol bypass in Monrovia.
Mr. Brown said he is not perturbed by the attacks and acts of gangsterism by youths, whom he said are being misused and abused by public officials to attain their failed agenda of threats and intimidation against politicians and citizens opposed to bad governance, corruption, and wasteful spending of public resources.
He said the December 17 planned peaceful rally goes beyond Political Parties and involves civil society, interest groups, religious groups, as well as ordinary Liberians disappointed and affected by the poor performance of the Weah’s administration.
Mr. Brown said the December 17 planned peaceful rally is a platform created by the CPP for Liberians to vent their frustration and dissatisfaction against the deteriorating economic conditions and extreme poverty in Liberia.
“If you are enjoying stay home. If you like the poor state of affairs, stay home. If you are scare, stay home. But if you are suffering and bearing more then you can carry, then the planned December 17, peaceful rally is for you,” Mr. Brown said as he called on all Liberians irrespective of political affiliations, to attend the rally.
The organizing Committee assured Liberians that the December 17 rally will be Peaceful and that the police is duty-bound by law to ensure maximum protection of its citizens.
“The Organizing Committee has met all basic requirements including formal letter to the Minister of Justice and payment to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to use outside of the SKD Sports Complex in Paynesville for the planned peaceful rally,” the Committee said.
Mr. Brown said what obtained on July 26, when Peaceful citizens were attacked and brutalized by CDC thugs while protesting before the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, will never be repeated, as any attempt of such acts of gangsterism will be repelled.
However, the political leader of the Liberian People Party (LPP), Tiawan Gongloe, said the CPP is not legitimate enough to stage such rally.
LPP said on Wednesday, December 14, it will lead a mass protest dubbed “Day of Mass Citizens Action” on the grounds of both the Legislature and the Executive Mansion in Monrovia.
However, it is not yet known whether the party has got permit from the state security mainly the Justice Ministry or the police for its planned peaceful public demonstration in the wake of the already tension in the country.
Notwithstanding, the party said the purpose of its action is to alert the general public that constitutional crisis is looming unless the appropriate measures are put into place to curb the situation.
According to a statement issued and signed by the party’s Chairman, J. Yanqui Zaza yesterday in Monrovia the mass action aims to draw the world’s attention to the increasingly unbearable, harsh, deteriorating living conditions of the downtrodden indisputably as a result of the bad governance of the administration of President George Manneh Weah.
“Mass People’s Action to Rescue the State,” the rally stems from the corrupt actions of the current group of “kleptomaniacs” and “nincompoops” that have degenerated our motherland to the lowest ebb ever in peacetime,” the statement noted.
LPP then highlighted issues in its pending petition to be submitted to the legislature including alleged delay and irregularity of civil servants’ pay, and the sanitization of leadership at the National Elections Commission.
Others are the ongoing National Housing and Population Census, calendar of events for the Tuesday, October 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections scheduled for next year’s voter registration process and President Weah’s 48-day presidential travel.
For this very important mass action, the LPP is therefore calling on all political parties, civil society organizations, student groups, youth groups to turn out in their numbers and join in a singular accord to speak out loudly and clearly to our leaders in the exercise of our rights and responsibilities as enshrined in Article 15 of the Constitution of Liberia.
