By Precious D. Freeman
The Liberia Pay After (LPA) Association of Liberia yesterday staged a peaceful protest demanding for their money which the Government of Liberia owes them since 2019.
According to the head for the protesters, Moses Dossen, they usually do business with the pensioners especially old soldiers and any other government entity by giving them loan and carrying the cheques to the bank.
He added that the association has been in existence for a very long time and this has been their very first time to protest for their money, adding that this government owes them for June and July which is LD 20,666.342 and also owes for 2020 which has all increased to the amount of 80 million LD.
Mr. Dossen said that all of their cheques were deposited at the bank and whenever they went to encash their cheques, they would only be faced with the ‘NO MONEY SYNDROME’ and are being referred to the Central Bank only to be told also that the Central Bank had received information from the Comptroller General, Janga Cole mandating that no one should cash any loan cheques.
However he said they have engaged Janga Cole on the issue several times but he had refused to give their money and the reason why they have decided to help the old soldiers is because they are not earning much to feed them and their family which is USD35 per month.
“Either Janga Cole give our money, or cash our cheques that we gave these solders, then we all forget about giving loans, because we felt within ourselves that we were helping the government but they don’t want to appreciate our efforts, “he explained.
He added that they all will be on the streets for one week until the government grants their request and added that Janga Cole is one of the persons who is obstructing peace in this country and is not in favor of this government and he should tell the government if he does not want the position any longer.
Some of the protesters are also crying that they are waiting for their money so that they can be able to pay their children’s school fees and also cater to their family needs, because the country’s economic state is such that it makes it rather difficult to have their daily bread.
Meanwhile the bank governor has assured the aggrieved pensioners of starting paying them today and apologized for their dissatisfaction and delay in addressing their plight.