By Bill W. Cooper
Several residents of kongba District in Gbarpolu County residing in Monrovia have rubbished allegations linking their District to recent act of violence that occurred among citizens after the Tuesday, December 8, Special Senatorial Election in the county.
Addressing a news conference Sunday, December 27, in Monrovia, a perceived elder of the district, Rev. Joseph Armah, stated that there have been no history of such barbaric act since the inception of their district and stressed, “We will not even condone it at any day.”
Contrary to the report of alleged rape, Rev. Armah disclosed that no such incidence ever occurred in Normondartono Town as was disseminated by some citizens whom he termed ‘detractors’ of the peace loving people of Kongba District because he noted that if anything of such happened, why should the venue of the allege rape be known?.
According to him, there was a buffer zone/road block at the Moi River Bridge in ULC Camp allegedly by some supporters of the Collaborating Political Party (CPP) candidate, Botoe Kanneh, indicating that the people of Normondartono Town did not torture anyone as being insinuated through the air waves.
He added that, “Due to fear, some of the residents of Normondartono Town had to spend nights in the bushes in order to save their lives and moreover, the state security personnel did not arrive until after days when the incident had already taken place in the town.
Rev. Armah registered their regret and disappointment in the government and the National Elections Commission (NEC) for not providing security personnel to Normondatono Town being a border town between Liberia and another country, emphasizing that the presence of assigned security personnel would have curtailed that incident.
He then defended the decision to confiscate the ballot boxes on the Tuesday, December 8, stressing, “We see Paramount Chief Mcgill Wleh as a patriot and a lover of peace whose action on December 8, 2020 aborted an already violence prone environment that would have destroyed lives and properties due to the absence of state security personnel.”
The kongba District Elder further frowned on media institutions who he said are bent on airing what he termed as “fake news” without gathering the actual facts that took place, averring, “Normondartono Town is part of Liberia so as such, we want to encourage all journalists to please visit the community to establish and report the real facts to Liberians and the world at large.”
Meanwhile, Rev. Armah has also called on the government to speedily investigate, publish and penalize all those who were involved in the arbitrary use of the law that led to the disruption of the electoral process in that part of the county.