The Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) says its attention has been drawn to a deliberate and malicious misrepresentation of the set events that happened on Sunday, May 21, 2023 at the Christ Chapel of Faith in Paynesville by the Secretariat of the Unity Party (UP).
The church, which is owned by Nimba County Senator, Prince Johnson, had its congregation dispersed following a protest action led by a group of young people claiming to belong to the National Patriotic Party (NPP)—a constituent member of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
According to the Chairman of the CDC, Mulbah K. Morlue, “The UP’s secretariat has spuriously claimed that the protest, which the party said was ‘violent’ and carried out by ‘thugs’, was sanctioned and perpetrated by the CDC. This is the usual mischievous political machination that the Unity Party is accustomed to, which is intended to buy it public sympathy.”
Chairman Morlue said, “First, the CDC wants to make it categorically clear that, as an institution, it does not condone violence of any kind and did not plan nor execute one at the senator’s church. However, the party is of the opinion that, in our new dispensation, the right to assemble and voice one’s views are fully guaranteed under the law.
“The group appeared to be exercising these rights in a non-violent manner. Even Senator Johnson, against whom the protest was directed, did not say in his interview with the VOA following the protest that it was violent. For the Unity Party to come to such conclusion and accuse the CDC is an act of political desperation—so desperate that it now calls the former warlord, who they have long denigrated, ‘a respected religious leader’. This shows how they came up with the unconscionable idea of aspiring to have his protégé within a heartbeat of the presidency.”
The CDC Chairman continued, “However, the CDC has got much valuable use of its time right now than to validate the cowardice of a lawmaker feigning being a ‘Man of God’ while profiting off the backs of the people he represents. And the desperation of his newfound friends in the Unity Party is becoming so pronounced that they will do anything to keep him happy—even if it meant ordaining him.”