By Our Reporter
PHOTO: Bomi County Sen. Edwin Melvin Snowe
“My life is being threatened; this is not politics. Today I may be seen as an opposition senator, but tomorrow, any of you could be senator in opposition as well,” he told his colleagues.
After publicly claiming that he has been receiving threat to his life from the Unity Party government, Liberia’s Vice President Jeremiah Koung has assured the opposition Bomi County Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe of full protection.
“I receive calls from outside Liberia, from security apparatus that I’m trying to overthrow the Liberian government. This is no small crime; I’m asking the Senate to guarantee my family and I security as of today,” Sen. Snowe said at the Senate’s regular session on Tues. May 27, 2025.
But VP Koung, who is also President of the Senate, dispelled the claim and said the government of President Joseph Nyumah Boakai was out to take his life.
“Under this government, we will protect all oppositions; you are free to speak. It’s just that we ask everybody to speak in the confines of the law and protect the peace. President Boakai has asked me to tell you that your security is guaranteed, including your family,” the Liberian Vice President told the Bomi County Senator during the Senate session.
But what triggered the claim by the Bomi Senator who is also the head of Liberia’s delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja, Nigeria?
Sen. Snowe said the threat to his life stemmed from a press release issued last week by the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT) that he had said on the Spoon Radio Network that he wants the Boakai government to fail, something he believes has placed him in grave danger.
“My security is in the hands of the state. If I die today, I want the Liberian people to know that the Ministry of Information issued a statement that has threatened my life and if I die today or my family is harmed, they should be prepared to answer that question,” Senator Snowe said.
However, VP Koung further assured: “Under this government, we will protect all oppositions; you are free to speak. It’s just that we ask everybody to speak in the confines of the law and protect the peace. President Boakai has asked me to tell you that your security is guaranteed, including your family.”
According to Sen. Snowe, “Treason in our constitution is no small charge; you either go to prison for life or death. We may be young and maybe a few Senators are in the 60s. But we remember a day in this country where people will lie on people and they are killed. Under this political dispensation, we should not allow that to happen.”
Weah’s CDC party condemns alleged death threat
Snowe’s death threat claim has been condemned by the main opposition CDC party of former President George Manneh Weah.
CDC’s Chairman, Janga Kowo said in a statement on Tuesday: “The government’s baseless declaration of Senator Snowe as a ‘national security threat,’ absent any credible evidence, is a reckless and unconstitutional act aimed at silencing dissent and consolidating political control.”
Snowe seems not to be taking the reported threat lightly and he has been speaking to Journalists and on different news outlet ever since the information Ministry’s press release which expressed abhorrence over his Spoon radio pronouncement.
“This is about my life. I have done no wrong to exercise my constitutional rights to express interest to contest for the highest seat in Liberia or to be a member of the opposition community,” Sen. Snowe concluded.