08 November 2017

LIBERIA MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

President Sirleaf Addresses the Nation; Commends Liberians for Patience, Peaceful Demeanor, Sources: Daily OBSERVER, Executive Mansion News, FrontPage Africa, Modern Ghana, News24, News Public Trust, Reuters, The Bush Chicken, and The New Dawn

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has addressed the nation commending Liberians for their patience and peaceful demeanor. President Sirleaf said: “As we go through this time of uncertainty in our electoral process, awaiting the country’s historical presidential transition, I commend you for your patience, and your peaceful demeanor.”

According to an Executive Mansion release, the president spoke Tuesday in a nationwide address at her Foreign Ministry Office in Monrovia. She said Liberia’s laws and democratic institutions are strong; they will withstand this challenge, and they will stand the test of time. 

President Sirleaf underscored: “We can strengthen them by demonstrating maturity, and not abuse our positions or misuse the platforms that have been made available to the Country through news media and new technology.” She urged Liberians to continue to respect each other, the rule of law, human kindness and decency. “Allegations, hate speech, inciting language has been defining what should be a proud moment in our history,” she pointed out. Read more

Senate Passes Presidential Transition Act, Source: Daily OBSERVER

The Liberian Senate has approved the 2017 Presidential Transition Act which is aimed at establishing arrangements or mechanisms for the proper management of the transfer of political power or administration from one democratically elected government to another.

According to the bill, there will be a Joint Presidential Transition Team, comprising of 15 persons responsible for the transitional period from the day of the declaration of the President-elect. Also in the law, there will be special services and facilities for former presidents and vice presidents. Some of the special services include security, equipped offices, including furniture, vehicles, budget allocation and provision for dependents.

The Act was approved last week and subsequently forwarded to the House of Representatives, which was placed on Tuesday, November 7’s agenda. Read more

Electoral Fraud Case: Unity Party, Liberty Party Want Voter Roll Subpoenaed, Source: FrontPage Africa

Lawyers representing the ruling Unity Party (UP) and the opposition Liberty Party (LP) in the case Charles Walker Brumskine and Harrison Karnwea, presidential and vice presidential candidates of the Liberty Party versus the National Elections Commission (NEC) Tuesday called on the NEC hearing officer to subpoena the electoral commission to provide the Final Voters Roll (FVR) and other documents pertaining to the October 10 elections.

The lawyers, Varney Sherman, Benedict Sannoh, and Lavala Supuwood insisted that the NEC must be subpoenaed to provide critical documents including the FVR, copies of presiding officer worksheet, copies of the list of people who voted without their names being on the official list and copies of findings into the investigation involving Mr. Amos Siebo who was caught printing Voter ID cards during the voter registration period. Read more

Boakai, Cummings, Urey, Brumskine Remain Resolute on overturning Election Results, Sources: Daily OBSERVER and FrontPage Africa

The ruling Unity Party (UP), Liberty Party (LP), Alternative National Congress (ANC), and All Liberian Party (ALP) have resolved to consolidate their strengths in ensuring that there is an unhindered investigation into the results of the October 10 elections which they said was fraudulent. At the headquarters of the LP in Congo Town outside Monrovia, the standard bearers of the four parties met and had closed-door meeting and later addressed the media.

According to ALP’s Benoni Urey, the consolidation of solidarity of the four parties is a signal to the world that Liberian leaders are capable of fighting for their people. ANC’s Alexander Cummings said he had always believed that Liberia cannot continue to do things the old way and expect new results.  “This is about our country, this is about Liberia. I said during my campaign that we cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results; because we may have had problems in the past with our results doesn’t mean we should accept it this time around. The one thing we are united is that we do not believe that the recent election reflects the will of the Liberian people and this is our primary goal. We want to make sure that this process follows the rules, the laws and the Constitution of our country,” Cummings said.

UP’s Joseph Boakai who didn’t mince his words when he said the October 10 elections were not free of fraud remarked “I want to say special thanks to Charles Walker Brumskine for being the one to have taken the lead in the legal process and we have intervened with him. We want to say that this is a good day for Liberia that the four of us can come together for a cause of our country. We have committed ourselves to ensuring that this election would be peaceful, credible and the standard that we respect and will bring dignity to our country. Unfortunately, the process was peaceful but not fair and credible and did not meet and did not represent the will of the Liberian people.”

On his part, LP’s Charles Brumskine said there can be no democracy if the rule of law is not adhered to. “We realize that there can be no democracy unless the will of the people is reflected in the outcome of the election,” he said. Read more

Senator George Weah Describes Critics As Troublemakers, Source: FrontPage Africa

The standard bearer of the main opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Senator George Weah has refuted claims that his party is a party made of lawless people. Senator Weah says the people who referred to them as lawless in the past are now causing trouble for the state.

“All of the people that thought that Cdcians (CDC partisans) are hooligans they are now the troublemakers in the country,” the CDC leader told his partisans at the party headquarters in Congo Town Tuesday evening.  “We have been peaceful for 12 years and I want you (Cdcians) to keep that. Those who want bring problem in the country have no history of winning an election,” Senator Weah continued. Read more

Best option for Liberia, Source: The New Dawn

The chairman of the governing Unity Party (UP), Wilmot Paye says the legal battle embarked upon by the opposition Liberty Party (LP) and other political parties including a formal complaint before the National Elections Commission (NEC) filed by the UP are the best options for Liberia that had suffered 14 years of civil war. Contrary to growing public apprehension here, Mr. Smith says such procedurals cannot create chaos and panic; instead, the political parties involved are testing the legal framework of the country.

“There is no need for fear and panic. Although it is strange in our electioneering period for legal proceedings, I think it is helpful and the test for our democracy and legal system. Nobody should harbor fear and panic because procedurals have nothing to do with fear,” Paye maintains in an interview with on the New Dawn Tuesday. Read more

UP welcomes Prince Johnson, Source: The New Dawn

The ruling Unity Party (UP) says there will always be welcome for vote-rich Nimba County Senator Prince Johnson if he decides to return to the ruling party, in spite of his declaration of support to the main opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) for the runoff now indefinitely suspended.

“We respect Senator Johnson, Senator Johnson was originally a Unity partisan, let me tell you this when he vied to be our candidate in 2005. That’s the original party, so if he comes back, you know there will always be welcome for him as we welcome a lot of others here. So everything is possible,” UP executive Augustine Ngafuan told a local radio talk show Tuesday in Monrovia.

According to Mr. Ngafuan, the process of political alignment hasn’t ended yet, noting that the UP always gives space for people to come back. “And that no matter where they went before they can come back to us. So Ambassador Boakai has an outstretched arm, even for prodigal sons,” the ruling party executive said. Read more

Defeated Nimba Representative Candidates Eye Supreme Court Stay Order, Source: The Bush Chicken

Opposition party candidates from the representative race in Nimba County’s eighth electoral district are taking cues from Liberty Party’s (LP) win at the Supreme Court in relation to their district election and recounting process.

The defeated candidates say they plan to file a formal complaint to the Supreme Court should NEC fails to consider their complaints of irregularities and fraud and proceed to announce incumbent lawmaker Larry Younquoi as the winner of the district’s seat in the just-ended recount process in Saclepea.

Their planned action comes just after the high court ordered the NEC to investigate LP’s claims of fraud in the presidential elections before scheduling a runoff election. Read more

“Security is Under Control,” Senate Chairman on Security, Intelligence Assures Citizens, Source: Daily OBSERVER

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Defense, Security, Intelligence, and Veteran Affairs at a late evening press briefing Tuesday, assured citizens and residents that national security is under control.  Senator Stephen Zargo, following four hours of executive session in the Chambers of the Senate, told reporters that his committee briefed the Senate plenary on a recent high-powered meeting his committee held with the Elections Security Task Force as a result of a letter he presented to that body concerning exchanges of hostile speech among political actors. Read more

Police Chief Says Attack On Associate Justice’s Home Not Political, Sources: Daily OBSERVER, FAAPA, FrontPage Africa, LINA, and The New Dawn

The recent attack on the home of Associate Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh was not politically motivated, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Gregory Coleman has said. Addressing a brief press conference at headquarters of the Liberia National Police (LNP) Tuesday, IGP Coleman condemned the wanton act which, he said, had no political motives. “So far so good from our investigation conducted. There is no evidence of political motivation leading to the attack on the associate justice’s home,” he said.

IGP Coleman noted, however, that the investigation is also being shifted to the police officers assigned at the compound to ascertain if they are knowledgeable of how the incidence occurred. He maintained that “there is no political motive that led to the home of the associate justice being attacked.”

The IGP assured that the police will remain committed to enforcing the rule of law and continue to provide security to the chief justice, associate justices, and the peace-loving people of Liberia.

It will be recalled that some unknown men unleashed stones on the home of the associate justice Sunday night, having the potential to damage some parts of the compound and inflict bodily injuries. Read more  

President Sirleaf Congratulates Kenyatta On Re-election As Kenyan President, Sources: FAAPA and LINA

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has sent a message of congratulations to Kenya President, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta following his re-election.

According to a Foreign Ministry release, President Sirleaf in the message to President Kenyatta said: “Your re-election to this high responsibility is a testament to your ingenious leadership not only in Kenya but the entire Africa.” She added that the people of Liberia celebrate with him “this great accomplishment.”

She assured president-elect Kenyatta of Liberia’s continued support and cooperation with the people of Kenya. “We are confident that you and your hardworking team will continue to lead the Republic of Kenya to great heights,” the Liberian leader stressed. Read more

Man, 39, Accused of Sodomy in Ganta City in Nimba County, Source: FrontPage Africa

Kelvin Davis, 39, is accused of sodomizing an eight-year-old boy in Ganta, Nimba County, and has been detained in Sanniquellie undergoing court trial. According to Alexander Franklin, the deputy commander at the Women and Children Unit of the Liberia National Police (LNP) in Ganta, the community residents turned Kelvin over to the Police when he was caught with the minor on the night of 5 August this year.

The suspect, who admitted carrying out the crime, reportedly informed the Police that he was under the influence of alcohol when the incident happened. Read more

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ON LIBERIA

General Butt Naked And Other Former Warlords Roam Free In Liberia. Will A New President Prosecute Them?, Source: Newsweek

Joshua Milton Blahyi remembers the day he met Jesus. It was July 1996, and he was naked. The notorious Liberian warlord, then known as General Butt Naked, was about to lead a band of 18 child fighters—the oldest of whom was 15—into battle against the rebel forces of former President Charles Taylor.

As was his custom before going to war, Blahyi, now 46, had slaughtered a child in a ritualistic sacrifice supposed to bring protection and fortune in battle. (He is reluctant to give specific details but admits that his victims were usually young girls aged between three and 12 years old and that he and his fighters would usually consume parts of the victim’s body.) He had sent his boys down to the river to fetch water for him to wash the blood from his hands.

That’s when Blahyi says he had an apparition. “I had a vision where Jesus met me and told me to repent and live or refuse and die—with the bloodstains of the child still in my hands,” Blahyi tells Newsweek. Read more

Okorocha to confer chieftaincy title on Liberian President, Source: Vanguard

Governor Rochas Okorocha, of Imo state, Tuesday, announced the coming of the Liberian President, Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, on Thursday, just as he said she will be conferred with a chieftaincy title and a road named after her in the state.

A statement to newsmen in Owerri, by Okorocha’s Chief Press Secretary, CPS, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, said Sirleaf would also deliver a lecture on “Women in politics.”

According to the release, “On arrival on Thursday, Mrs. Sirleaf would be taken to the Palace of Eze Imo to be accorded the African way of receiving an august visitor like her and the Chairman of the State Council of Traditional Rulers, HRM Eze Samuel Ohiri will be expected to decorate her with a Chieftaincy title.

“Taking into account that she took over the leadership of Liberia soon after a bloody Civil War and she has been able to sustain the peace of that Country for ten years now. Read more

Equatorial Palm Oil Launches Human Rights Impact Assessment Process, Sources: Alliance News and GNN Liberia

Equatorial Palm Oil PLC said Monday it has launched a human rights impact assessment process at its Liberian operations.

The AIM-Listed palm oil production company said it is working with business and human rights expert Anna Triponel to conduct a human rights impact assessment as an initial step in its work to implement the United Nations Guiding Principles on business and human rights.

Through this process, Equatorial Palm Oil said it had identified notable areas to ensure the company respects human rights at its operations.

Equatorial Palm Oil said areas of high priority include contractor wages and employment status, accidents on the plantations, the impact of the use of land on communities, employee housing conditions, and the health and well-being of the company’s executives. Read more

Disclaimer
 

This media summary consists of selected local media articles for the information of UN personnel. The public distribution of this media summary is a courtesy service extended by UNMIL on the understanding that the choice of articles included is exclusive, and the contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership. The inclusion of articles in this summary does not imply endorsement by UNMIL.

 

 

 

 

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