What Fueled Thursday’s Riot?

Liberia: Congo town, Tubman Boulevard Thursday, August 22, 2024 became a scene of intense tension between residents and members of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency and the Liberian National Police.

Knewsonline investigation reveals that the LDEA didn't go behind the CDC headquarters to conduct a raid but attempted to execute a search & seizure warrant on a property behind the CDC Compound, where intelligence had earlier suggested that there are houses in the area which are very close to the CDC party headquarters and hosting huge amount of narcotic substances.

The LDEA had to pull out of the siege and seizure ground when it met stave resistance from at-risk youths within the Vicinity who started pelting stones at the law enforcement officers.

The Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) was established as a semi-autonomous Agency of government on December 23, 1998 charged to ensure a drug free society.

One account also suggests that live bullets were exchanged between officers of the Liberian National Police and men resisting the siege and seizure. Currently, one of the LDEA agents whose name is not yet disclosed sustained injury and is currently being treated at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Sinkor. This had absolutely nothing to do within the CDC Compound as speculated in the public.

The CDC involvement is believed to have been triggered by a social media post from its secretary general who is the immediate past Mayor of Monrovia City and a sanctioned personality by the US.

Jefferson Tamba Koijee in his early Thursday morning post on his official Facebook page wrote “Heavily armed state securities our party’s headquarters for the second time this early morning hours engaging into sporadic shooting that sent panic pandemonium among citizens and partisans in and around the party headquarters. We’re calling the immediate attention of ECOWAS, AU, International community, the Liberia and CDCians in particular to this unscrupulous action of the Boakai administration that is geared towards disrupting our hard earned peace. We keep calling out that the peace of this country is far greater than Boakai and his gang of political desperadoes”.

In the midst of the growing waves of political indifference and tension in this post-war country where peace is fragile. Now, of what significance is Jefferson Koijee’s call on the International community while he is at the same time instigating violence through his social media page and others regularly? Is he a respecter of the law?

Do the citizens or partisans have the right to resist the law in this case where the law enforcers acted on a siege and seizure note? Certainly not. The laws of Liberia has to be obeyed at any time and every time and anyone having issues should seek the court but the act of resisting the law is a very bad practice in such a democratic space, especially disregard for the rule of law by a major opposition political party who ran the country for six unbroken years.

The tension has intensify till now.