Lofa County Senator Steve Zargo and his kinsmen which included those who voted him to the Legislature since 2015 seem to be at loggerheads.
It had been a form of joke that Lofaians are unable to pronounce certain names beginning with the ‘L’ and ‘R’ alphabets but the Lofa County Senator confirmed that they cannot even pronounce his name beginning with ‘S’ and ‘Z’ correctly.
According to the lawmaker, some young people are being paid to issue statements against him continuously and pointed out, “These young people in Voinjama cannot even read a sentence and they mispronounced my name.”
In an interview on August 17, 2022, at his Capitol Hill offices, Senator Zargo the young people should desist from being used which they too took as an affront.
In their reaction, a consortium of youth groups in Voinjama held a press conference and accused their lawmaker of using his position as the Chairperson on the Committee on Defense and Intelligence in the Liberian Senate for political reasons.
The young people said a lawmaker who sits in a critical position should not indulge in acts that are unrepresentative of a national leader and spew out misinformation under the pretense of speaking on critical national issues.
“Senator Zargo should desist from using the Chairmanship of Defense, Security and Intelligence for personal, selfish political gains. We believe it’s hard times the Senate considers whether Mr. Zargo who’s consumed in political bigotry should continue to hold a crucial position as Defense, Security and Intelligence Chair or an independent, professional Senator should be.
Saah James who is from Zorzor District, said he believes that the Senator is right about his assertion since the youths have refused to learn their lessons indicating sarcastically that, “The assertion from the Senator that Lofa youths cannot read is his way of appreciating the young people for voting him and he did nothing for them.”
“You can’t blame Jorkpor. We should blame ourselves as young people of the county for allowing ourselves to be deceived by characters that are insensitive to our plights but would use it to insult us,” Saah stated.
While another youth identified as Yamah Mulbah said in an angry tone that, “His allegation against the young people of the county is a clear indication that he failed miserably to ably represent our interest at the national level and he should be ashamed of himself that he is making fool of the young people for voting him into power,”
It can be recalled that the residents of Lofa County begun speaking against their Senator since he publicly accused Mayor Jefferson Koijee during a press conference of masterminding the Independence Day celebrations’ violent protest that took place before the United States Embassy near Monrovia which witnessed one person being injured critically.
At that time Senator Zargo called for the suspension of the City Mayor as it then became a rumor that the alleged perpetrators of the protest were thugs apparently under the orders of Mayor Koijee, a Lofaian.
However, pundits are afraid that the path that Zargo is treading could lead him to a dangerous tunnel as the youths are those who propagate messages during campaign to sell a candidate and if an incumbent expecting to recontest, like in the case of Zargo, is in a rift with the very electorates and foot soldiers that is not a good sign.
