-“if police can’t stop it, we can stop it”
By Frank Sainworla, Jr. fsainworla@yahoo.com
A candidates in Liberia’s October 10, 2017 presidential elections Benonai Urey has launched a fierce attack on the head of the National Elections Commission (NEC) accusing him of rigging the polls, with stern warnings to George Weah and his Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and the national police.
Urey, who is a former Maritime boss in the Charles Taylor regime and got 1.6% in the first round of the elections, launched issued the attack and warnings at a news conference in Monrovia on Wednesday.
It came a day after vocal talk show host on his private Sharta FM radio, Henry Costa was reportedly physically assaulted by a Mob in the capital Tuesday afternoon.
Costa, who escaped unhurt, accused Weah’s CDC supporters of being responsible because of a series of critical shows he has done this week against Weah, a claim the CDC has since denied.
“Those who took part in the foolishness against Henry Costa must stop it, because if the police can’t stop it we can stop it. We call on the police to go and stop it,” the All Liberian Party (ALP) presidential candidate warned.
He threw out a direct warning to Weah, urging the CDC leader to reign in his supporters.
“He must not be surprised, anything can happen. I want to remind him that he is treading his path with very dangerous people and he must be careful, he is a young man,” the one time close confident of the jailed ex-President Taylor said.
Urey then warned Weah to beware of persons (whose names he did not mention) who he said “use state resources to put our heads against one together. We must wake up,” he told the CDC leader, who topped the first round of the polls with 38% of the votes.
The footballer-turned politician is to face up with incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai in the runoff polls slated for November 7.This will be the third runoff that Weah will be entering since the 2005 post-war elections in Liberia, when the ruling UP won its first of two six-year-term of office.
Although the ALP leader did not named those using state resources to knock heads together, some political observers believe he was referring to the outgoing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and some of her key officials (including her favourite son, Robert Sirleaf) who are widely believed to be supporting George Weah and his CDC.
Sirleaf and her other loyalists’ reported support to the CDC opposition ticket comes amid strained relations with VP Joseph Boakai and her ruling Unity Party (UP).
In a harsh tone, Urey warned that he and his ALP supporters’ calm stance so far must not be misconstrued as weakness, as all political parties supporters have the capacity to use violence.
And he therefore threatened to unleash thousands of his party’s militants, if the national police does not stop alleged thugs of George Weah’s CDC from allegedly attacking his supporters.
Urey emphasized that members of his ALP were so frustrated and angry because they feel they have been cheated in the election, so much so that he had to keep many of them at his Wulki Farm resort in Careysburg, outside Monrovia for days after the polls. He said he held them there in order to prevent them from venting their anger in the streets.
He cautioned his supporters to exercise restraint but warned that patience is running thing
Like the Liberty Party leader Charles Brumskine, Urey is claiming that the October 10 polls were saddled with massive fraud and irregularities and even accusing the national electoral body of being given money to cheat.
“This election will go down in history as one of the most rigged election ever,” the ALP presidential candidate claimed.
“Jerome Korkoya what you have done to this country, you and your family—your children and their children will be judged by history”
Meanwhile, NEC Chairman Korkoya later told a local private radio in Monrovia, Fabric FM via mobile phone Wednesday evening that “Urey’s claims are a mere fallacy” that he does “not want to dignify.”