27/07/2022
For Immediate Release
(July 27, 2022 – Monrovia, Liberia): The attention of the National Civil Society Council (NCSCL) has been drawn to a riot situation between protesting students of the Students Unification Party (SUP) at the state-run University of Liberia (UL) and a support group of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) under the banner of CDC Council of Patriots (CDC-COP) that resulted to several members of SUP sustaining serious and minor bodily injuries, while several others were humiliated.
According to reports, the SUP-led group gathered Tuesday Morning, July 26, 2022 before the US Embassy near Monrovia to embark on a “peaceful” parade to the Centennial Memorial Pavilion, where the indoor program of Liberia’s 175th Independence Day was taking place, to present a position statement to government authorities and the international community on growing corruption
and other negative vices in the country, under a campaign dubbed “Fix The Country”.
The report further stated, that while the students were setting up for the "Fix the Country" campaign, which aimed to denounce all forms of bad governance, including corruption, poverty, insecurity, and the dire state of infrastructure, the CDC-COP loyal to the ruling establishment infiltrated and attacked the students’ group, thus wounding several. Video footage on social media shows the leader of the student group, Christopher “Walter Sisulu” Sivili being stripped naked and dragged mercilessly.
The National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSCL) condemns in the strongest terms, the ill-treatment meted upon the students who peacefully gathered to exercise their civil and democratic rights as enshrined in Articles 15 and 17 of the Liberian Constitution, which call for the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly through responsible manner.
The Council therefore calls on the Government of Liberia (GoL) through the Liberia National Police (LNP) to launch an investigation and bring those human rights violators to justice. The Council, being a voice of the voiceless, will not sit on the fence to allow the country be ruined. Liberians cannot afford seeing their country
plunge into another political brouhaha as a result of injustices upon peaceful citizens.
We also call on the International Community and Liberia’s development partners to promptly intervene into this looming danger that has the propensity to derail the progress made, especially as we draw closer to the General and Presidential Elections of 2023.
It is our fervent hope that national leaders will man-up to their responsibilities so as to protect the peace and stability we currently enjoy.
Signed: __________________
Madam Loretta Alethea Pope Kai,
Chairperson of NCSCL
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