During the early hours of yesterday morning, Thursday, June 25, 2020, the section of the Tubman Boulevard just before the Nigerian and German embassies in Oldest Congo Town, appeared like the “Black Lives Matter” violent protests in the United States had come to Liberia.
According to eye witnesses, some demonstrators stormed the area during the early hours of the morning and set several tires on fire in the middle of the main route. This caused a serious traffic disruption, as it was the rush hour.
Fortunately, the Liberia National Police (LNP), with its Zone 3 Sub Station just three-minute walk away, was on the scene at the instant and brought the situation under control. The LNP says it arrested six persons in connection with the reported protest.
The LNP says it strongly condemns such acts and has assured the general public that those involved will be made to face the full weight of the law.
According to the police, some agitators, claiming to belong to the self-style group, Council of Patriots, took to the streets in the early hours of June 25, 2020, causing damage to properties and harassing commuters with motives to cause chaos. It has vowed to arrest other perpetrators of this “senseless violence” and forward them to court.
The leader of the Council of Patriots (COP), Mr. Henry Costa, based in the United States, says his organization is the organizer of the protest. Mr. Costa made the disclosure on his Costa Show after the police had disbursed the demonstrators. “The COP takes responsibility! We staged that and it is not over yet. It is happening in other places,” Costa said.
It can be recalled that on June 15, 2020, the LNP disrupted a planned press conference to be held by the COP. They disclosed that they would stage an unannounced protest if the government succeeds in a surcharge to increase fees on voice calls and mobile data bundles of the two GSM service providers, Orange Liberia and LonestarMTN.
The COP said that increasing charges on voice calls and mobile data bundles will deny the already suffering masses access to information and a suppression of their voices.
The problem stems from a new surcharge to be imposed by the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) that has been resisted by the cell phone companies.
In addition to the current fees collected from GSM companies (GST of 15% on sales, license fees amounting to about 3% of gross sale, corporate income tax of 25%, various miscellaneous taxes and a 5% regulatory fee), the LTA has issued an order imposing an additional surcharge of 5%.
The companies have rejected the new surcharge. They say the surcharge, in any form, would be passed on to the customers in this Coronavirus period.
They say it is unconscionable and contradictory to ask customers to pay more while also asking them to provide customers with affordable packages.
They say the surcharge would place Liberia as one of the most expensive countries for communications across Africa.