By Bill W. Cooper
Ahead of President and Vice president-elect, Joseph Boakai and Jeremiah Koung’s inauguration, scores of concerned widows of the Armed Forces of Liberia and their children have threatened to disrupt the pending inauguration slated for this Monday, January 22, 2024, if their benefits are not settled.
The group, comprising over 2,000 members, also gave the outgoing administration of President George Weah a 24-hour ultimatum to ensure the speedy disbursement of their monies or “There will be no inauguration and we are prepared and ready for any consequences.”
Speaking in an interview yesterday on a local online TV platform, the group leader, Vivian Mulbah, stated that since December 2023, President Weah, through his Chief of Protocols, Finda Bundoo, assured them that they would have received their benefits but to no avail.
She narrated that the settlement would have begun with the children, wherein each child is to receive L$20,000 the same month, while the women were promised to have received their benefits in the tune of US$1,500 each, to be paid in three installments.
Madam Mulbah noted, “President Weah is our son, father, and leader, and he has been trying for us, but since he promised us that we were going to receive our benefits of US$1,000 each installment, nothing has been done and his administration is due to expire soon.”
“We have given him a chance to settle our children first, the children got their compensation, but when it comes to us now, we can’t even hear anything about our benefits. So, we are resolved and need our money on or before Monday, or else, there will be no inauguration,” she said.
According to her, the group does not want to deal with any third party but rather the President himself on the round table before the State program is held on the grounds of the Capitol Building in Monrovia.
The group is calling on both outgoing President Weah and President-elect Boakai to collaborate and ensure the full payment of their benefits before Monday, stressing, “Or we will sit at various intersections in Monrovia and its environs until our concerns are addressed.”
“This time, we want to see him as we used to see former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and not his Chief of Protocol Finda Bundoo. So, if we don’t get our payment, no inauguration. We did this before during Ellen regime and we can do it again,” she emphasized.
