THE PLP CLAIM that its Political Leader and Vision Bearer, Dr. Daniel E. Cassell, through his company, Kwenyan and Associates, met all legal requirements and was given a permit by the LCAA for his helicopter to land in the country would be one of the facets in this claim and counterclaim development that captures the attention of political observers. Just as important to observers of this standoff between the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority (LCAA) and the Political Leader of the People’s Liberation Party (PLP) is the fact that Dr. Cassell is the leader of the PLP, one of the major opposition challengers to President George Manneh Weah’s second term in office. What may be the truth of the LCAA issuing the landing permit or not, it should have been no doubt clear to the Weah administration that Dr. Cassell’s position means the situation could be politically exploited, especially as the opposition turns pressure on the Weah administration two years to the general and presidential elections.
IN A STATEMENT issued in Monrovia late Monday, October 25, the National Youth Assembly of the PLP claimed that the failure of the government to allow the helicopter, owned by its Political Leader, to land in the country violates his Constitutional rights. The group pointed to Articles 11, 17 and 22 of the 1986 Liberian Constitution.
“THE NATIONAL YOUTH Assembly of the PLP sends out this warning, that we are not jokers as we shall take to the streets in protestation to ensure that this aircraft is allowed to land freely, and any other attempt to hinder the process we will be very radical and stringent,” the National Youth Assembly of the PLP stated.
THE GROUP REMINDED Liberians that Dr. Cassell earned his personal wealth outside government, unlike the wealth of the soccer legend turned-politician who allegedly squandered all of his earnings during his football days, and is now “depleting our nation’s resources with his cronies and friends through the building of condominiums around the country”.
FURTHER DELVING INTO the matter, the Youth Assembly maintained, “This con artist and petit hustler, Moses Y. Kollie, is also in the know of all the necessary documentations, including international aviation requirements regarding the purchase of this aircraft. It is no more a secret that George Weah and his co-operative, in person of Mr. Moses Y. Kollie, has cluelessly, callously, and deliberately deprived Dr. Daniel E. Cassell and his company of the Constitutional and inalienable right of landing permit as an attempt to bar other political parties from using the airspace as a plot to cleverly continue to perpetuate themselves into power”.