By S. SiaphaMulbah
The Resident Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Liberia, G. Victor Padmore has raised concerns over the daily increase of pre-election conflicts across the country.
With calls on the religious community and other authorities to take speedy actions against perpetrators, Bishop Padmore said that the entire country’s attention is set on preventing and discussing post-election conflicts which might occur after the casting of ballots and forgetting about the current situations at hand.
He added that the daily recurrence of confrontation of different groupings that leads to counter reactions and chaotic outcomes should not be overlooked as the election draws closer.
According to Bishop Padmore, those instigating political actions leading to violence need to be brought to book in order to save the state from potential threats masterminded for their selfish and greedy political desires.
“I see everybody here discussing and talking about post elections conflict. I am concerned about the things that are happening now even before the same elections,” he noted.
Bishop Padmore added, “Before the elections; people have already started getting mysteriously missing, while wanton killings has become the order of the day without anything done to contain these conditions that the country is yet to stand against.”
After series of reported deaths, disappearances, attacks on ordinary and high profiled citizens, protestations among others; the religious community has in the strongest terms condemned those inhumane acts but all of these condemnations have fallen on arid soil.
Speaking at the Lutheran Compound in Monrovia recently, the clergyman called on religious leaders in the country to graduate from condemning every situation nowadays to begin taking actions that tend to ferment serious change across all sectors.
He made it clear that the leaders of churches in the country condemning crisis for some years now are getting no result, and worse of all, the same people perpetrators are still perpetuating the same worrisome acts.
“We as religious leaders have to take actions like what happened when Hon. Sando Johnson abused Rev. Macheal Francis where the churches closed their doors of the hospitals and schools to tell the government that there were things that were happening not right,” he reflected.
Bishop Victor Padmore also highlighted the constant violations of the election’s current elections law of the country by political parties having campaign activities while the National Elections Commission is yet to announce the start of such activities.
He cautioned the youths of the country to be careful of how they conduct their activities aligning with political actors for they are the driving force behind the future of Liberia.
According to him, no young person should see the current situation as a means to be used by any politician to instill fear against the peace and stability Liberia has enjoyed since the end of the civil crisis.
“You the young people are the ones that they depend on to have their missions accomplished; this is the time for you all to know that little things like food when you are hungry is not enough to go into the dark days we encountered,” he noted.
