PHOTO: Leaders of parties making up the CPP
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) has called on the Liberian Senate to reverse the decision to re-elect ex-warlord Prince Y. Johnson as Chairman of the Liberian Senate Committee on Defense and Intelligence and Varney Sherman as Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Human Rights, Claims and Petitions.
CPP is four-party coming together of the former ruling Unity Party, the Liberty Party, Alternative National Congress and the All Liberian Party.
Recently, the Liberian Senate was strongly criticized by the United States for the election of Senators Prince Johnson and Varney Sherman as chairs on Defense and Judiciary.
The CPP, in a press statement issued in Monrovia Friday, said over the years and in recent times, the vast majority of Liberians have been calling for the establishment of a War and Economic Crimes Court to prosecute those who have allegedly committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and economic crimes in Liberia.
Senator Prince Johnson, a former warlord, is one of those who have allegedly committed heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity during the civil war in Liberia.
According to the CPP, electing the former rebel leader as Chair on the Senate Committee on Defense and Intelligence is insensitive to the calls of those Liberians calling for the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court.
The statement claimed that the election of these two senators is an affront to victims of his alleged crimes and an incentive for the culture of impunity in Liberia.
The CPP said: “Senator Varney Sherman’s election as Chair on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Human Rights, Claims and Petitions is an outright show of support for corruption by the Liberian Senate.”
The Collaborating Political Parties made it clear that the United States, which is grouping of four Liberian political parties, has sanctioned Senator Sherman for corruption involving judicial bribery, bribery of politicians to impeach Justice Kabineh Ja’neh and for other corrupt practices.
The election of both Senators Johnson and Sherman proved that the senate is yet to take the fight against corruption and impunity seriously.
“As a responsible country that is almost 180-year-old,” the statement went, “we should not always wait for our partners, particularly the Americans, to scold us publicly before our leaders can take the fight against kleptocracy and impunity seriously.”
The CPP welcomed the statement from the United States Government and reiterated its call for the immediate reversal of the elections of Senators Varney Sherman and Prince Johnson from the leadership of the Liberian Senate.