03 October 2017

 

LIBERIA MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

Urey Concerned over Number of Excess Ballots, Sources: Daily OBSERVER and The New Dawn

Although the National Elections Commission (NEC) chairman Cllr. Jerome Korkoya has clarified the commission’s decision to bring in excess presidential ballots for the October 10 elections, the presidential candidate of the All Liberian Party (ALP), Benoni Urey, said the excess ballot papers is alarming.

Korkoya’s explanation was in response to comments and questions from the public regarding the commission’s decision to bring into the country nearly one million excess presidential ballots. But Mr. Urey said the excess ballot papers were something to keep the public in worry, “Because it tends to undermine the conduct of the peaceful elections.” The ALP leader made the comments Monday in Monrovia when a group of Imams visited him to pray ahead of the upcoming elections.

‘Can Cummings Save Liberia?’ asks Forbes Magazine, Source: Daily OBSERVER

Alternative National Congress (ANC) presidential candidate Alexander Cummings has clarified reports that he has been out of the country for most of his adult life and noted that despite his travels abroad and working for international companies, “I’ve always returned to Liberia, where I managed a series of philanthropic efforts.”

In a FORBES Magazine interview, asking if Cummings can save Liberia, the ANC leader said he had always planned on living full-time in Liberia after his retirement from Coca-Cola and his decision to run for president came a few years ago when he was discussing with his family and friends the best way he could contribute to Liberia.

“We discussed the challenges facing Liberia, primarily the high level of youth unemployment and underemployment, which I have said is a national security risk. However, with proper investments in things like vocational and technical training, the youth can be transformed into a national asset,” Cummings said.

MacDella: “I Am… That Generational Change”, Source: Daily OBSERVER

The presidential candidate of the Liberia Restoration Party (LRP), Ms. MacDella Cooper, says President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s recent statement on generational change is a clear endorsement of her presidency as the next person to succeed her.

In an exclusive interview with journalists in Gbarnga over the weekend, Ms. Cooper spoke of how she admires the reaction of women across the country toward her being the only female candidate in the upcoming presidential election in October among the 19 men vying for the position.

“I am standing between two generations, those who are aging out, and those who are coming in. I also understand the struggle of the young people; and while they are aging out, there must be a benefit for everyone to trust through a pension scheme,” the LRP leader said.

Prince Johnson Promises Justice for All Liberians, Source: Daily OBSERVER

The presidential candidate of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), Senator Prince Johnson, has vowed to deliver justice to all Liberians if he is elected President at the October 10 polls.

Senator Johnson said his administration will dispense justice and anyone found guilty of the arbitrary killing of a fellow human will face the full weight of the law. “There is no room for ritualistic killers because we will send to court anyone accused of the act and if found guilty, that person will bear the full punishment by hanging,” the MDR leader said last weekend in Ganta, Nimba County.

The opposition political leader blamed the government for not doing enough about the mysterious death of Harry Greaves, former managing director of the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Corporation and promised that his government will revisit the case to ensure that justice is done if elected.

UP Share Tens of Millions of Dollars in Off-Book Payments Under Shell Company To Fund Campaign, Source: FrontPage Africa

FrontPage Africa (FPA) says it has uncovered, through credible sources, in and outside of Liberia that Conex Telecommunications Incorporated, a venture wholly owned by Mr. Sherriff Abdallah, a Unity Party (UP) stalwart, and a key supporter and financier of Vice President Joseph Boakai campaign, channeled more than USD25 million of state tax revenue to the ruling party's 2011 campaign.

According to the source, Mr. Abdallah has been using funds from a questionable contract with the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) to finance the political activities of Vice President Boakai, like he did for President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2011. But the UP has denounced knowing Abdallah, noting that they have no such individual in the part, lest to the hierarchy.

Discovery comes just one week away from October’s presidential and legislative elections, of which the UP presidential candidate, Vice President Boakai, is viewed as a front-runner, campaigning on “integrity and trust.”

Ellen downplays “next generation” hysteria, Source: The New Dawn

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has downplayed the hysteria which greeted her next generation comments people like to turn low hills into mountains. President Sirleaf, however, clarified that her statement in no way impugns anyone who is not young. The president in an address at the 72nd meeting of the UN General Assembly said the October elections would pave the way for the next generation of leaders to move the country forward. But many interpreted her comment as a direct campaign against her septuagenarian Vice President Joseph Boakai who is seeking to replace her.

“There’s no issue. You people turn low hills into mountains by your own interpretations. There was no …, nothing meant to say Liberia is a young country. Many of our people are young; we will continue to have [them]. It does not in any way [impugn] anyone who is not young,” President Sirleaf said Monday, 2 October in an interview upon her return from the United States.

YOCEL Demotes Electoral Violence, Promotes Women’s Participation, Source: Daily OBSERVER

The Youth Coalition for Education in Liberia (YOCEL) has commenced efforts aimed at preventing pre and post-electoral violence, particularly among young people. The group is also campaigning to ensure more women participate in the political process of Liberia including voting on October 10.

YOCEL made the call recently when it launched a door-to-door awareness campaign in collaboration with Volunteer Hub Liberia in the Mount Barclay Community sensitizing women and youth about the importance of maintaining peace and disengaging from all violent acts as the country heads to election.

Dr. Bowah: ‘Epilepsy in Yarwin Mensonnoh Still Alarming’, Source: Daily OBSERVER

The health officer of Nimba County, Dr. Collins Bowah, has described as ‘alarming’ the continued spread of ‘epilepsy’ in Yarwin Mensonnoh District. Dr. Bowah told reporters recently in Sanniquellie that the situation is becoming worrisome and needs serious attention. He said the County Health Center is making frantic efforts by distributing free drugs to patients but the rate at which the disease is affecting people continues to rise, with cases reported in nearly all the towns and villages. The Nimba health officer added that the Health Ministry is investigating the cause but couldn’t explain whether the cases add up to an epidemic.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ON LIBERIA

AU to deploy short-term election observation mission to Liberia, Source: Xinhua

The African Union (AU) will deploy its short-term election observation (STOs) mission on Tuesday in Liberia. The pan-African bloc has earlier deployed long-term observers in the country for presidential and legislative elections scheduled for Oct. 10. Upon the invitation from Liberia, the Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat has approved the deployment of the election observation mission, according to an AU statement on Monday.

The mission, which comprises 50 short-term observers, will complement the long-term observers who have been deployed to Liberia since Sept. 1, and are tasked with comprehensively assessing the electoral process for compliance with national laws and international standards. The STOs will specifically observe the conduct of Election Day operations and immediate post-election developments, including the results management process, it noted.

Fasting for peace in poll-bound Liberia, Sources: APA News and Journal du Cameroun

The women of Liberia are observing 15 days of countrywide fasting and supplication for next week’s general election to pass off peacefully. The fasting which began last week will end on the eve of the country’s historic elections, the lead-up to which has witnessed campaign violence.

Women of all faiths have been camping in the open in Monrovia and other public spaces across Liberia to fast and show off banners discouraging further violence and preaching the need for continuing peace and stability. “Don’t Touch our Peace” read a banner perched at the grounds of a camp in Monrovia on Monday.

Dancing and singing peace songs in the war front and beseeching male combatants to lay down their arms and return from the bush, Liberian women played a crucial role in ending the country’s first and second civil wars of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Measles outbreak in Bong County, Liberia, Source: Outbreak News Today

The Liberia Ministry of Health has reported a measles outbreak in Bong County in north-central Liberia. As of 27 Sep 2017, a total of 16 cases (4 confirmed and 12 epidemiologically linked) were reported in the community. It all started when a 3-year-old girl from Kayata Community, Suakoko District became ill on 6 Sep 2017 and presented to the local hospital (Phebe Hospital) with fever, red eyes, cough, and maculopapular rash. A multidisciplinary rapid response team of county and district health authorities and partners has been deployed to the affected community.

Jury picked for Liberian immigrant accused of lying about war crimes to U.S. authorities, Source: Newsworks

A jury of eight women and four men has been chosen to decide the fate of a Liberian-born man living in Delaware County whom federal prosecutors say lied about his past as a warlord to move to the U.S. two decades ago.

Mohammed Jabbateh, 51, of Lansdowne, has lived without any criminal record in the U.S. since the 1990s. He's a business owner and father living among thousands of other Liberian immigrations who have settled in the Philadelphia area.

But prosecutors contend that, as a rebel commander during Liberia's first civil war that began in 1989, he carried out a far more macabre life, a past that he allegedly concealed from immigration authorities before moving to the U.S. Under the name "Jungle Jabbah," the government said, Jabbateh committed or oversaw scores of gruesome acts targeting innocent civilians, including women and children.

Liberian accused of war atrocities faces fraud trial in US, Sources: AP and Waco Tribune-Herald

In Liberia's first civil war he was known as "Jungle Jabbah," a rebel commander who witnesses said sliced a baby out of a pregnant woman's stomach, killed civilians and ordered his soldiers to rape young girls, according to prosecutors. But for nearly the last two decades, Mohammed Jabbateh has lived a quiet life in America after being granted asylum — a protection that will soon come into question after a jury was selected Monday for his trial on charges that he lied about his past on U.S. immigration documents.

Prosecutors have several witnesses who in court documents recalled their interactions with Jabbateh, 51, when he was alleged to be a high-ranking member of the United Liberation Movement for Democracy and a splinter faction called ULIMO-K, both Liberian rebel groups in the 1990s.

In one 1994 account, a man identified in court documents as "Witness AA" said that he saw Jabbateh order his soldiers to kill a town chief whose heart was then removed, boiled and eaten. Another witness described how rebels put gasoline-doused tires around two prisoners of war and set them ablaze after Jabbateh instructed his men to execute them.

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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