PHOTO: CPP leaders-(Left-Right) Cummings, Boakai, Karngar-Lawrence & Urey
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The Collaborating Political Parties has strongly condemned the arbitrary abuse of power by the Liberia National Police which led to charges of arson, terroristic threats, criminal mischief and attempted murder brought against Mo Ali, Secretary General of Unity Party.
The CPP said it viewed the LNP’s actions as a purely political witch hunt and an attempt to crack down on freedom of speech, further confirming that the Weah-led government is chasing opposition.
But the Liberia National Police (LNP) is yet to react to the opposition CPP claims.
The CPP in a press release noted that the blatant refusal by the Solicitor General, Syrennius Cephas, and the Inspector General, Patrick Sudue, to execute the order of the Justice Minister, Frank Musa Dean, to immediately release Mr. Ali, further highlights the travesty of justice and lack of adherence to the laws continuously carried out by the Weah-led administration.
The CPP, which is comprising of the All Liberians Party, the Liberty Party , the Unity and the Alternative National Congress maintained that Liberian government, after wrongfully detaining Mr. Ali, charged him barely 24-hours after the United States Congressman Chris Smith named President George Weah’s government as being “Kleptocratic”.
The four political parties pointed out that Mr. Ali’s charges were verbally stated by investigators of the LNP, after he, his lawyers and executives of the CPP were kept waiting at the LNP for six hours.
On Thursday, the press statement went on, , in the presence of the Unity Party Chairman , Amin Modad, and the CPP Secretary General , Martin Kollah, the police deployed over 100 armed officers without charging Mr. Ali, preventing him and his team from accessing food and water.
The CPP said it is regrettable that the LNP, headed by Colonel Patrick Sudue, has demonstrated its partisan nature in the execution of its duties, regardless of the fact that this has the propensity to speedily dissipate the country into insecurity.
This government’s careless and politically motivated action contravenes article 15 and 37 of the Liberian Constitution and is a gross violation of Mr. Ali’s human rights.
“We are urging the government to ensure the safety of Mr. Ali and the protection of his human rights and, at the same time, notifying the over regime that we will resist any attempt to the contrary,” the statement said
“We will use every and any action available to us legally and politically to resist the arbitrary abuse of power by some official of the Weah-led government.”
The CPP urges the Weah-led administration to stop the intimidation and harassment of opposition figures and concentrate on the fixing of the deplorable state of the country’s economy and security.
In this light, the CPP went on, its national executive committee has mandated its Political Action Committee to develop, for execution, appropriate specified and unspecified political actions in order to deal with the situation at hand.