The political leaders of the opposition Liberty Party and All Liberian Party, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and Benoni Wilfred Urey, have warned that the opposition community may not be able to campaign in 2023 if they fail to stand up and respond to the tactics of intimidation by President George Weah and the ruling CDC.
Both opposition politicians sounded the warning Wednesday, July 27, 2022, in Gbarnga, Bong County during the opening ceremonies of Unity Party’s National Convention.
Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence emotionally recounted several incidents of violent attacks and intimidation against leaders and members of the opposition community by elements of the ruling CDC, supported by agents and institutions of government with impunity, during the course of the last five years.
She noted that the government and the CDC have crafted these tactics of intimidation against the opposition as a way of testing the waters ahead of the much-anticipated 2023 presidential and legislatives elections, with the singular objective of scaring the opposition and forcing its supporters into submission and silence.
She recounted the 2018 violent attacks allegedly carried out against her and other key opposition figures by supporters of government and the CDC in district #13, Montserrado County, under the command of Monrovia City Mayor, Jefferson T. Koijee, while campaigning for Unity Party’s Cornelia Kruah-Togba.
The Grand Bassa County Senator also mentioned the vicious attack on ALP Representative-candidate, Telia Urey, during the by-election campaign in district #15, Montserrado County, and the Tuesday, July 26, 2022 attacks and torturing of protesting students of the University of Liberia (UL), amongst others, as some of the incidents that clearly show the CDC’s strategy of intimidation and chaos that must be stopped if the opposition must achieve its objective of democratically removing President Weah and his party from power next year.
She also called on partisans of the Unity Party to guide against the temptation of plunging their party into crisis that have the propensity of undermining progress towards 2023.
For his part, Benoni Urey admonished members of the Unity Party to come out of Gbarnga truly united with one purpose, and present former Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai as the alternative for the Liberian people in the 2023 elections.
He also echoed the call by Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence for the opposition to rise up and face President Weah and his CDC in all political shapes, manners and forms to ensure a conducive political atmosphere to campaign and win in 2023.