DISCOURAGING INVESTMENT?

David B. Kolleh, david.kolleh@frontpageafricaonline.com, (231 631 0032)

Residents of the Township of Louisianan, District 13 Montserrado County, have accused the Deputy Minister of Lands Mines and energy, of “stalling” the process of a legally registered company that is seeking an operating license to conduct river-sand mining as well as operate a quarry in the Township.

The residents told FrontPageAfrica that the Deputy Minister of Planning and Research Carton Miller, whom they said hails from the township of carrying on in-house manipulations to prevent the company from carrying on operation for his personal interest.

In a complaint presented to Montserrado County Superintendent Grace Kpahn during her routine visit to the area on Tuesday, the residents said they are accusing Minister Miller because they believe he was trying to coerce them into signing what they call a ‘dubious’ memorandum of understanding (MOU) after they had crafted an initial copy of the document.

Speaking on behalf of the Residents, Mr. Moses K. White Township Clerk said Longda Business, a Chinese owned company, poised to begin river-sand mining on the St. Paul River as well as operate a quarry in the area, is already beginning to impact the lives of the ordinary people even before receiving their license to carry on the full scale operation.

“Madam Superintendent we have been here for decades now and no one has been able to come to our aid, seeing a company that is employing our youths, repairing our roads and bringing back life to this place that virtually became dead due to the war, we think such a company must be encouraged and must receive its license to operate.” Mr. White a youthful Clerk of the Township remarked.

He told the Montserrado County Superintendent that the road that links their Township with Bensonville was now accessible due to an intervention by the company following its entry into the area, adding “Hon. Superintendent you can now drive from here straight to Benson on a good road, but we don’t know why since this company applied for its license people like Carton Miller who comes from here will ignore the plights of the people for selfish reasons.”    

White further said that over 25 youths of the Township have been employed by the company and at least 200 more are expected to be employed if the company begins operation.

“Most of those you see here today madam Superintendent, are people who have either been cutting palm for survival or burning coal which is good, but with the coming of this company in this area over the last three months life here has changed. Our brothers are not only getting employment, but they are also getting training in making boats, a training that will remain with them all their lives, even if the company leaves.” White Continued.

For Mrs. Cornelia Roberts, a midwife at the Township’s only clinic, her hope of survival and life will disappear if the company is not given a license to operate. She told FPA that over the last three months since the company came in their area, signs of life have returned to them.

“We now have cars coming inside this our place. People from all over are coming here to look for jobs. People are selling and the place is coming alive. This is something we have not had for a very long time.” Mrs. White lamented.

For Mr. Johnny Lee one of the engineers of the Chinese company, his company is prepared to make boasts for the residents of Louisianan to transport their goods to markets, rehabilitate their roads, create employment and help give life back to the area.

Johnny said, all they are now waiting for is for the Liberian government to grant them their operating license.

The deputy Minister of Lands and mines could not be contacted because; his mobile phone remained switched off up to press time.  

SHOW ME A WOMAN’S FRIENDS AND I WILL TELL YOU WHO SHE IS

 

Mr. Editor:

Today in Liberia, the popular saying, show me a person’s friends and I
will tell you who that person is, is being played out in the inability
of president Sirleaf to condemn the wholesale atrocities being
perpetrated by President Gadaffi against his own people. It is no
longer news that Gadaffi has unleashed an all out war against the
Libyan people simply because they have dare to ask him to leave office
after 42 years of, at best, eccentric rule over these most patient
people. Appalled by the atrocities, most credible leaders have rushed
to condemn Gadaffi and his dictatorial rule, but not president
Sirleaf. Glued to Gadaffi by all kinds of shady deals and dependent on
him to finance her shameless bid for a second term, (shameless because
she had sworn to the Liberian people that she was going to serve only
one term), Mrs. Sirleaf now seems tongue-tied and locked-jaw to
condemn Gadaffi, even after the Americans, with whom she claims to be
so friendly, had in no uncertain terms condemned Gadaffi and called on
other countries to do likewise. President Sirleaf could only say that
she hopes for an “amicable solution” to the Libyan crisis.

Amicable solution? This is either a most naïve or heartless statement,
or both; for what amicable solution can there be between a government
bent on staying in power by brutally murdering its citizens, on the
one hand, and the helpless and unarmed citizens, on the other hand?

Counselor Jerome Verdier of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
was one of the first to sound the alarm. He reminded the nation that
president Sirleaf had throughout her term forged a close relationship
with Col. Gadaffi resulting in benefits to a few, including “perhaps
the party of the president”. The counselor went on to warn president
Sirleaf that she is obliged not only to condemn the killings in Libya
but also to assure that “Liberia will not be a safe haven… for human
rights violators like col. Gadaffi”.

But sorry, counselor Verdier, President Sirleaf is in a bind. She
continues to be fed from Col. Gadaffi. That is why she continues to
hesitate in condemning Gadaffi. The United States and the
international community as a whole must take not that respect for
human tights and respect for the correct position of the United States
does not matter to president Sirleaf when her selfish and parochial
interests are at stake. It is certainly true: show me a woman’s
friends and I will tell you who she is!

Look at some of the President’s other friends: That conservative US
Senator, John McCain, whom she supported against our own brother
President Obama; and the renegade president, Gbagbo, who she supports
against the internationally recognized president Ouatarra. The
president should be warned, however. If she thinks she can go against
the will of the Liberian people in the forthcoming elections – as her
friends Gadaffi and Gbabo are doing to their people – if she thinks
she can do such, she is making a sad mistake. Liberians will stand up
for their rights and ensure that their choice in the elections will be
the one occupying the Executive Mansion.

By: S. Civicus Barsi-Giah
Intellectual Class

WHAT IS AT STAKE IN DISTRICT FIVE?

                                             Written by: Gaius F.Barsee-Giah

                                          A PROMINET YOUTH OF DISTRICT FIVE

District five one of the largest in Montserrado county, has for the past five years suffered at the hand of bad representation. For the past five years, the district has been operated by one man without the input of the people. The district does not have an office space where people of the district can elect their own zonal head to work with their representatives. The district begins from the Robertfield international airport road where guest arriving in here should start to be attracted to our country from, but none of such.

We have a representative that lacks vision and lobbying power. One that does not have charisma, and believe in the usage of his allegedly ill gotten wealth, at the ignorance of few of our people who thinks he is a good man. Mr. Snowe did not receive any will from his parents with millions on it neither is he known to be a business man like James Davies. Remember the scripture says:” My people perish because of lack of knowledge” that is the case with the people of district five. When the head is rotten, it affects the rest of the people who should be running along it.Unfortunately,for us in the district, where we have  inhabitants of at least 35,000 -45,000, there are four private clinics with least well train medical practitioners not mentioning doctors. No adequate drugs to help our people illnesses. There are no public toilets in the almost fifty communities of district five,thus,causing sicknesses of all kinds to affect our little ones and even our older folks who have got not enough energy left for the defense system in their body to combat any diseases. Malaria as we all know kills most our children before they reach the age five. What future is there for those kids and what good care is there for our elders who are nearer the dusk of life? NONE.

I told a group of young people that most of the problems we face in Liberia today and past times are not only due to wrong policy by policy makers but because of bad representation and electing wrong policy makers. As we stand now as a country, do you expect the current legislators to pass the recommendations of the TRC? NO.WHY?

Look into Nimba County for example, the both senators. Look into Bomi caucus, Grand Gedeh, you see people that fought war and kill people free of charge and sit under immunities that they enjoy and get pay from our taxes. You see people, who sat at LPRC and stole millions to impoverish our people and enrich themselves, yet they are in there and now the TRC report and recommendations becomes a trash to them. Look at the referendum, blatantly illegal and unconstitutional. The reason is because some of those that are there only think about themselves and do not care about the future of the country and their constituents. District five is not an exception of this bad representation because Mr., Snowe will not in any ways vote for the TRC but will support anything in the referendum that suits him or in any other bills.

Our people are now seeing why those people always want to be in power and want to be policy makers, because they want to pass laws that will protect them from prosecution, protect their stolen monies, bad businesses they have invested in and keeping the electorates down. This time around in district five our young people, old mothers and fathers, marketers, youth groups are up for a change because we are exhausted of been kept down. We do not want to be mistreated by Snowe anymore! We want to be part of the decision making of the district. Developmental plans should evolve from us. For five years, we have not known how much government place in the budget for us. Who have our money, not the superintendent, it is Snowe.We did not discuss any bill together during any of his recesses and he did not vote for anything that we instructed him to or not to. He is not a leader if he were; he would still have been speaker of the Honorable House of Representatives. Therefore, we want a change. We want to give someone else a try. Nations and districts are great today because people kept giving others a try and got the best one.

Does Mr.Snowe think that taking his personal fund to buy zinc for King Gray town hall makes him a good representative? Or building one toilet in Paynesville Joe Bar quite recently, or two to four hand pumps in some part of Congo Town? Been a representative means all cannot go so let send someone that we can trust, sending him was not a bad thing but the people did not know his only agenda was ME,MYSELF,MINE,AND I. Had our people known, they wouldn’t have voted him. He wants only to protect his properties and wealth. He claimed that he got his money by been match commissioner in Korea/Japan 2002 and made usd$500.00 a day for a month. He ran campaign for Sepp Blatter in Africa. Can you believe this joke of how he got rich and is thinking we are commodities he can buy at will?

A representative should be unlocking developmental opportunities for his people, having good human relationship, and national and international moral character. Not one with UN travel band because of his involvement in things that are against national and international norms. How can he even spot an investor to invest in district five or any contact to impact the people’s lives. The district has got no library where our children can spend time to read and do their assignments and make research. NO internet facilities where they can pay at least an affordable amount to get familiar with making research and hooking up with world. This in itself could generate fund for the district and her people. But he cannot do such cause even to lobby with central government in his people behalf cannot be done what more about the outside world.

My beloved, constituents in all of our communities and slums of our district, this time of our elections is not pay day time. If anyone told you that the people will only get for themselves and do not have your time so this is the time to eat, you are mistaken again. It will be that you are accepting the wrong advice and not caring about the future of our children and Liberia as whole. If Mr.Snowe told you that he so rich to develop the district it is a blatantly untrue. There is no one that uses their personal resources to develop a district; it is the resources that you have entrusted into his hands that all of you should be using to do so. But as you have seen for the past five years, the power we give him was only for big people, like Cllr.Wonusue.There have been several accidents in our district where our brothers,mothers,sisters etc.died but they are not big names so he did not care.

This is a time for sober reflection on how he failed and brought us nothing but flimsy and childish excuses. His wife left him, he was fighting legal battles, his colleagues the house hates him and many others he has to say. Beware the ides of March, it thus come. Let not this time around give a man’s job to a boy. Mr.Snowe had travelled to eighty-eight countries around the world what impact has it have on our district? NONE.

BIG, BIG PEOPLE KILLED ALLISON

Fourth Witness Explains

The fourth prosecution’s witness in the criminal case Liberia vs. H. Dan Morias and others took the stand Tuesday. The witness, Ophelia Williams told the court that the victim, a pregnant woman, Tumu Yoaude Allison was murdered by big, big people.

Ten prominent citizens of Maryland County are behind bars at the Monrovia Central Prison Compound on allegations of murder.

Witness Williams, who declined naming some of the big, big people allegedly involved in the killing of the lady, told the court that on November 24 2009, Harper City was upside down during the morning of that day.

The witness noticed that people were running to Lake Shepherd based on information that an empty canoe was floating over the lake.

The next day, which was on the 25^th day of November 2009, witness Williams told the court, that early that morning, people were rushing to the same Lake Shepherd saying they have found a corpse.

“The people were so many, but all the citizens were there. Later, the body was taken to the J. J. Dossen Memorial Hospital,” Witness Williams told the court.

In the second week of January, 2010, witness Williams informed the court that information spread around that the Blayjay People were going to the Superintendent of Maryland County to give the names of the people, who killed the deceased.

With this news, as a citizen, the witness averred that she took upon herself and went to the palace, where a meeting was being held.

She explained that when the Superintendent asked the Blayjay People to disclose the names of the perpetrators; the Blayjay People informed the Superintendent that the crowd was too many and that they were afraid to call the names of the killers among the crowd.

Witness told the court that five men came out and named William Wallace, Amigo Nugba, Mleh Marian, with other big, big people.

“When I got at the parking station in Pleebo, the city was upside down to get car it was very hard and as what is going on. They said at the parking station that they are catching the Gboyo People in Harper City, there where we are going. Being that I myself wanted and actually to see who all were doing this killing in Harper, I myself  board the car for Harper, where I live,” she added.

The third witness, Baway Jidikan, a supervisor at the Presidential Palace in Maryland County, testified on Monday that it was January, 2010, when he was entering the palace fence, as he got down from a motorbike to open the gate, he saw the County Inspector, Hodo Clarke, one of the defendants standing there.

Witness Jidikan told the court that defendant Clarke spoke to him and asked him for a lift on his motorbike, but he informed him (Clarke) that the bike did not have sufficient gasoline.

“I left him standing there; I went to open the gate of the palace. When I came back from opening the gate, Hodo Clarke was still standing there, where I left him. So I asked what happened. He said to me that the woman saw the people at the lake that was using the canoe where this woman was killed. There where he was going to see the woman at the Pastoral Center, “Witness Jidikan said.

The ten defendants, who were arrested based on a juju man’s findings, have pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder, criminal conspiracy and criminal facilitation.

The trial continues today at Criminal Court “B” at the Temple of Justice. The prosecution of perceived ritualistic killers in Maryland County started as far back as 1976, when the Liberian government hanged some citizens of that county that were found guilty of the act.

Since the arrest and subsequent detention of Mr. Morias and others, Maryland County has been the scene of mass protests by some of the citizens, calling on the Government of Liberia to immediately release the accused.

President Ellen Johnson –Sirleaf’s Special envoy at large, Mr. Morias was arrested on  Monday, February 12, 2011, by court officers, after he had gone to the Temple of Justice to attend to some business.

HOPE RENEWED

A New Chance at Education for the Blind; No More Aided Reading For The Blind And Visually Impaired During WAEC

Clara K. Mallah, clara.mallah@frontpageafricaonline.com

Agustine Baryo is sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher read test questions and using a type writer to write his answers. The 25 year old, dressed in his school uniform and carrying a walking staff, is blind.

Baryo says this method is not good. “Most of the readers during these exams do not pronounce the words correctly and it makes it hard for the student to understand and give the right answers,” he says.

The 9th grader is among many blind and visually impaired students in the country that are expected to write this year’s West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams.

For many years, blind and visually impaired students have written exams with people reading for them. Now, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is hoping to provide them with Braille, a written language for blind people made up of raised dots.

It allows the students to read and write on their own without someone reading for them.

USAID, in collaboration with the Christian Association of the Blind (CAB), is sending a team of four persons from WAEC and CAB this weekend to Ghana for a one week assessment trip.

Adolphus B. Teah, coordinator of the Liberia Braille Publishing Institute for the Blind (LIBPIB), says the purpose of the visit is to learn WAEC Ghana’s model of administering the West African exams in Braille.

Beyan Kota, President of CAB, says the institution has been involved in advocacy in terms of social inclusion, economic empowerment for the blind and visually impaired persons over the years. “One way to empower blind people is to ensure their social and economic participation in national development. So the bed rock of CAB has been to provide blind people with opportunity by providing education and basic skills,” he added.

The president says WAEC tests are one of the basic factors that enable the blind to get into higher education of learning.

The new method, says Kota “means the blind and visually impaired will write the test in a fair manner.”

Baryo is placed among many students at the school who can see but he excitedly called his blind and visually impaired friends when he heard that the exams will be made available to them in Braille this year. “I called my friends as soon I heard the news that we are going to write and read the WAEC on our own,” he says.

Despite being thankful, Baryo says “they should please help us with more books because we the blind and visually impaired do not have many text books to use. “We are out of equipment so USAID should please help us.”

LIFTING LIBERIA THROUGH IMAGES SANDO MOORE'S NEW MAGAZINE TO HIT TOWN

Nat Bayjay, nat.bayjay@frontpageafricaonline.com

Monrovia -

Veteran Liberian photojournalist, Sando Moore returns with a magazine that will “lift and promote Liberia”.

Named ‘Sando Moore Images’, Moore said that his soon to-be launched bi-monthly magazine is one that will fill the big vacuum of a regularly published magazine in the country.

“I want to retire into the magazine industry. There is a big vacuum of magazine publications in Liberia and I feel that there is this big vacuum when it comes to a standard magazine”, he told journalists Tuesday in Monrovia.

With over three decades of experience in the print media industry, Moore added: “This magazine will border on Liberia’s promotion. I intend to use it to lift Liberia.” 

Displaying a copy of the magazine, he however explained that it will be different from the day to day news articles: “We will give more of a news analysis. But we will also be covering the un-picked up issues like promoting Liberia’s rich cultural heritage, the economy and Liberians in general.”

He clarified that the name ‘images’ will not only be mere pictorials as the name may suggest: “There are a lot of good articles in the magazine as you can see from this sample.”
An initial set of 3,500 copies will arrive in the country soon out of the total of 5,000 copies that were printed in Lebanon. 

Moore worked long years with the Daily Observer Newspaper and had a stint with the FrontPageAfrica Online and Newspaper before venturing into the magazine industry-a dream he said he hopes to see Liberian magazines competitive in any part of the world.

UNDER THREAT: Liberia's Border At Risk As Ivorian Crisis Intensifies

Mae Azango, FPA STAFF WRITER

Security along the border between Ivory Coast and Liberia is under threat as Ivorian cross to the Liberian side at will, according to UN officials working at the border. Officials here say the Liberian security presence here is ineffective. 
 
Outtara fighters caused panic among refugees in Zleh, a border town in Grand Gedeh County, on Saturday when they crossed in Liberia, shooting as they went.  
 
The Ouattara supporters were provoked by Ivorian refugees on the Liberian side who wore Gbagbo T-shirt and shouted anti-Ouattara slogans, according to a Liberian security official who was not authorized to speak to the press.
 
Sporting Gbagbo’s picture on their white T-shirts, Gbagbo supporters who crossed into Liberia as refugees, shouted across a narrow portion of the Cavala River, which divides Ivory Coast from Liberia: “Gbagbo forces will defeat you and we will return home.” 
 
One person sustained a gunshot wound in the shoulder, according to the security official.  Liberian security officers did not arrive at the scene until five hours later. Because of poor road conditions, they had to come on foot, the Liberian security official said. 
 
Supporters of either side of the conflict can cross at hundreds of places along the border. Even at official border crossings, security is light. At Garley Town, a small village on the Cavala River, immigration officials guard the border post without uniforms, radio equipment, fire arms or even flashlights.
 
Here the immigration office is made of reed, and has a thatched roof.  There is no flag.  A person on the Liberian side can hold a shouting conversation with someone on the Ivorian side.  Immigration officials say they have no way to contact the head office in Monrovia or the official border post in Toetown. “We have no communication, if anything should happen, there will be no way to send a message for help,” said Captain Smith T. Tarbell, a deputy immigration commander at Garley Town.  The UN has also called for more Liberian security staff at the borders, according to Mr. Thomas Mtaisi , the head of UNMIL’s field office in Zwedru. “The security situation remains a very big threat,” Mtaisi said.
 
Staff at the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) said they are severely short of staff. 
 
The $3 million USD allocated to the bureau is not nearly enough to police Liberia’s long borders, according to a high-ranking BIN official who requested anonymity. 
 
“There is nothing BIN can do with so little resources,” said the official. ”Whenever we write a report and submit it to the government, they think we are making up stories, so it is better the press brings it up to show the urgency. The securities of border posts are of national concern and with no logistics, our borders can’t be secure enough to combat any problem.”
 
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf recently dispatched 20 Emergency Response Unit officers to the border at Toetown after villages on the opposing side in Ivory Coast were captured by Outtara supporters, members of the ex-rebel group Forces Nouvelles. 
 
Forces Nouvelles fighters barricaded the border in Toetown last week and threatened that anyone crossing the border to go into Ivory Coast would be executed. 
 
Despite the presence of the ERU, two people posing as refugees were caught carrying fire arms and ammunition as they crossed a foot path into Toetown. “One of the men was carrying an M-16 raffle, while the other was carrying an AK-47 fire arm. The two men were caught and turned over to the police when they were reported by Liberian civilians who saw them use the foot path to enter,” Mtaisi said. The men were subsequently released.
 
Ministry of National Defense spokesman David Dahn said government agencies are working closely with the UN to ensure that the border is secure. “Defense is working in close partnership with other security agencies and with UNMIL to make sure that security at the border is intact,” Dahn said.
 
Ivory Coast has been embroiled in a political standoff that threatens to turn into civil war since November’s presidential elections. The United Nations and Ivory Coast’s electoral commission named Alassane Outtara the winner of the poll but Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent, has refused to step down, blockading Outtara and his cabinet in a hotel in Ivory Coast’s business capital, Abidjan.
 
At least 400 people have died in post-election unrest and another 500,000 are internally displaced in Ivory Coast, according to the UN. Some 90,000 refugees have crossed into Liberia whose border towns are struggling to accommodate the newcomers.
 
The instability in Ivory Coast threatens to destabilize Liberia. 
Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee assembled women in Nigeria this week to deliver a petition for ECOWAS to intervene in the Ivorian Crisis before it disrupts the upcoming Liberian elections to be held in October.  Gbowee   BBC Radio that if nothing is done, anyone wanting to be president in Nigeria or Liberia will follow in Gbagbo’s footsteps and refuse to leave office after losing an election. 
 
Leymah Gbowee and her women’s group once took over a peace hall in Accra when the warlords met there  in 2003 to  negotiate and end to the war between LURD rebels and Charles Taylor’s army. 
 
On local talk shows Liberians express concerns that the Ivory Coast crisis could threaten Liberia’s electoral process. 
 
Last week’s shootout demonstrated, the violence has already begun to spill over.
 
MAE AZANGO IS A FELLOW OF NEW NARRATIVES, A PROJECT SUPPORTING LEADING WOMEN REPORTERS IN AFRICA.

LIBERIANS' TAKE ON MORLU'S RE-NOMINATION REJECTION

Nat Bayjay, nat.bayjay@frontpageafricaonline.com

Monrovia - 

The axe finally fell on Auditor General John S. Morlu II on Friday when President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf announced that she will not be re-nominating the man whose involvement in a latest email scandal most likely shifted his re-nomination debate. “Fellow Liberians, whatever our differences and opinions, whatever our motives and objectives, the Office of the President demands a certain amount of respect and I can do no less than assure that this is the case. Additionally, as the fight against corruption will continue to demand a hefty amount of our time, our energies, our thoughts and our resources, we can ill-afford needless distractions and controversies. Therefore, I will not be re-nominating him for the post of Auditor-General of the Republic of Liberia”, President Sirleaf had said.   

At a FrontPageAfrica community forum held in Clara Town 24 hours after the pronouncement, Liberians voiced out their mixed reactions over the President’s decision.
Also inclusive is the extension of the debate on the social network FaceBook where Liberians at home and abroad exchanged views on the President’s decision.

A.Rahim Kamara, resident of Clara Town and student of the United Methodist University (UMU): “Actually, to hear that Morlu lost the job is shocking to me. He has helped to open up the [Liberian] society because he has been exposing corruption. My fear is that the next person to take over might not have the jest and sincerity to continue the fight. But if our next Auditor-General will be like John Morlu, then there will be no problem.  For the email, I think he needed to be a bit moderate in addressing the Madame [President Sirleaf] but I will say that I actually admire him. To say that the government is three times more corrupt even before he took the job was proven in his audits which prove that this government is indeed corrupt. So, he was never wrong for making such a statement. If that was the basis for which the President refused to re-nominate him and she has been holding it against him, I think it was not a reason for Morlu to lose his job.”
 
  Abraham A. Dorley, resident of Clara Town and Chairman of the National Polit Bureau of Liberia: “Firstly, one needs to understand that the position of an auditor general in Liberia lies squarely within the power of the President. That person serves at the will and pleasure of the President. If the President does not see it fitting, she has the power to dismiss the auditor general. We do agree that this AG, John Morlu, did a lot of works that indeed exposed and showed some loopholes within government circle. But the AG also did some work that are incomplete. According to professional standard, whenever one drafts an audit report, after three months one must be in that same position to give the final report. Up to now, there are some many audit reports that are drafted and the final reports are ones have not come up now. We are also convinced that there are other qualified auditors like Theo T. Joseph around here who can continue the job. On the email, I think the Presidency requires some decency and Morlu went too far on this.”

Civicus Barsigeah, a resident of ELWA and student of the UL’s International Relations Masters’ Program and a political youth advocate: “I think it is unfortunate when the President will say corruption is her ‘worst’ enemy but refuses to reappoint Morlu. I think that it is another way to rob the country’s resources for the use of her second term bid. The EU and America should talk now.”





Mohammed M. Sonii, resident of Clara Town and student of the University of Liberia (UL): “Since the formation of this nation, this is the first time that we can refer to someone as an auditor general. On January 6, 2006 she [President Sirleaf] assured the Liberians that corruption would be the public number one. This is a man since Madame Sirleaf took office that has been trying to ensure that indeed those who are corrupt are exposed to the society. Morlu has done extremely well for the fact that he has exposed lot of people have been placed on list like [Laurence] Bropleh and his brother Albert Bropleh and the rest of other people. He has shown that those in government who intent embezzling public funds can be put on the alert. So the issue of Madame President not re-nominating him makes us afraid. This is a man who has not taken any side when it comes to fighting corruption. We are not saying that no one should come to replace him but at least for now, let him be allowed to continue his job. On the issue of the email, I don’t see an insult. Analysts have been underlying the words ‘darn’ and ‘damn’ and they are saying that Morlu is saying that the Madame can have your suitable job and he will still survive for the next 20 years.



 

PATRICK DOEPLAH:1990-2011, GONE TO THE GREAT BEYOND - How the Promising Career Of a Lone Star Striker Came To a Tragic end

Danesius Marteh, danesius.marteh@frontpageafricaonline.com

Monrovia-  
The national team delegations leave Monrovia today for Accra, Ghana and Praia, Cape Verde respectively but with the news that striker Patrick Doeplah
will no longer wear the red, white and blue jersey of Liberia.

Has he retired? No. Has he been banned from international football? No. Has he been knocked-out by a life threatening injury? No. But what really happened?

Well the cold hands of death have ended the career of a promising young footballer.

Roman governor Julius Caesar, in the Shakespearean drama title Julius Caesar, told his wife Calpurnia that “Death is a necessary end and it will come when it will come.” 

Caesar was trying to calm the fear of his wife (who had a terrible dream about the death of her husband) and had revealed the dream that he was going to die in cold blood if he leaves their home. 

Did Doeplah know that death awaited him in Monrovia? Unlike Caesar, nobody revealed to him that he was going to die upon his arrival in Monrovia.

He had left his comfortable home in Kfar Saba, Israel to answer the call to national duty when his ‘necessary end’ came at the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Medical Center early Tuesday morning. 

According to Musa Bility, president of the Liberia Football Association, Doeplah was pronounced dead on arrival by doctors.

The 20-year-old midfielder arrived in Monrovia on Monday evening in preparation for Saturday's London 2012 Olympic Games qualifier against Ivory Coast in Accra.

Doeplah, who played for Hapoel Kfar Saba in the Israeli second division, was found lifeless in his room at the family residence and was taken to the JFK after police cordoned the area.

The atmosphere at the family residence was noticeable. Family members and friends wept openly that their hero and bread winner will never be seen again.

"I have spoken to the players of Kfar Saba [and] they are in heavy shock. He was in camp with the Liberia team and asked permission to meet his girlfriend and spend time with the family," said his club chairman Harel Reichman.
"He returned to the hotel and just did not get up in the morning. When Doeplah did not come down for training and failed to answer any calls, concerned officials broke down his hotel room door only to find him dead.

"We want to involve the senior people in government so that we can get it properly confirmed because doctors are saying he suffered from cardiac arrest," said Doeplah's agent Dawn Greenberg.

"He was like my child, I'm shocked, it's unreal. He called and sent me an
SMS yesterday [Monday] to say he was fine but I am in a total mess now.

"He has a two-year-old child and he is the source of income for his family because everyone knows how hard it is in Africa."

Doeplah scored his ninth goal in 23 games when Hapoel lost 1-2 to Hapoel Rishon Lezion at home in the league on February 25 and played the entire 90 minutes when Hapoel beat Maccabi Herzliya 1-0 on March 18 to move his club to the top of the table with 59 points from 27 games.

Born on October 27, 1990, Doeplah spent his youth career with Gardnersville FC (then known as Haja FC) and Roots FC, before playing senior football with Mighty Barrolle and LISCR FC.

At the latter club, he was the subject of interest from Ghanaian side Asante Kotoko.

He instead signed on loan for Israeli club Hapoel Kfar Saba for the 2009–2010 season before the deal was later made permanent.

International career

Doeplah made his international debut in the 1-1 draw against Zimbabwe in a 2012 African Cup of Nations qualifier at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville on September 5, 2010.

He replaced Amadiaya Rennie in another 2012 African Cup of Nations qualifier at the March 26 Stadium in Bamako on October 9, 2010 but was miserable in midfield as Liberia lost 1-2.

He was a bad selection ahead of James Koko Lomell given his performance against Zimbabwe and didn’t help the team badly in need of an equalizer.

But he made amends by becoming one of the stand-out performers when
Liberia beat Sierra Leone in the return leg of an under-23 qualifier for the London 2012 Olympic Games on December 19, 2010 at the SKD on December 19, 2010.

Doeplah scored the decisive kick as junior Lone Star won 3-1 on penalties and 5-3 on aggregate to set-up a second round clash with the junior Elephants of Ivory Coast, who lost to Nigeria 2-0 in the quarter-finals of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Fact file
Name        Patrick Doeplah
Date of Birth    October 27, 1990
Place of Birth    Monrovia
Height    1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position    Striker 
Year    Club Career    Caps & Goals
    Gardnersville FC   
    Roots FC   
2007    Mighty Barrolle   
2008 - 2009    LISCR FC   
2009 - 2010    Hapoel Kfar Saba    32                 8     
2010 - 2011    Hapoel Kfar Saba    23                 9

ABIDJAN FALLS

Gbagbo Remains Defiant, slams ‘attack against Ivory Coast organized by France, the United States and the United Nations’ 
M. Welemongai Ciapha, II welemongai.ciapha@frontpageafricaonline.com

As Liberian mercenaries continue fighting in neighboring Ivory Coast alongside with rebel forces; the Executive Director of the Liberian Refugee Repatriation Rehabilitation Commission (LRRRC), Cllr. Wheatonia Dixon-Barnes has warned that the various border points of entry are not safe for the large influx of Ivorian Refugees crossing  into Liberia.

Cllr. Barnes told a joint news conference Thursday at the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICAT) that statistics showed that the number of refugees have gradually increased from 72, 000 to 120,000.

Of this figure, Cllr. Barnes told reporters that 30, 000 refugees are currently based in Toe Town, Grand Gedeh County, River Gee County, Bahn in Nimba County, while Maryland County is hosting about 300.

Barnes’ declaration on the day when fighters trying to install Ivory Coast's democratically elected president began besieging the main city of Abidjan on Thursday as the top army commander fled his post in the face of a lightning offensive that saw several towns and a seaport quickly fall.

The Associated Press quoting Alassane Ouattara, whom the United Nations and Ivory Coast's own electoral council declared the winner of November presidential elections, said the forces backing him will "re-establish democracy and enforce the choice of the people."

"Today they are at the doorstep of Abidjan," Ouattara said of his armed supporters. "To all those who are still hesitating, whether you are generals, superior officers, officers, sub-officers, rank-and-file ... there is still time to join your brothers-in-arms."

Defiant Gbagbo slams attacks

Incumbent Laurent Gbagbo has refused to step down and recognize the result of the election. But even an armed onslaught on the country's commercial capital will not force him to do so, said Toussaint Alain, one of his advisers.

"He will not resign in the wake of this attack. He is not going to abdicate. He is not going to lay down his arms," Alain said. "He will stay in power to lead the resistance to this attack against Ivory Coast organized by France, the United States and the United Nations."

Gbagbo hasn't been seen in public for weeks, even though state TV announced twice on Wednesday evening that he was preparing to address the nation. Ivory Coast's army chief of staff, Gen. Phillippe Mangou, sought refuge at the home of the South African ambassador in Abidjan with his wife and five children, South Africa's foreign ministry said Thursday.

Advancing on foot while firing into the air, pro-Ouattara forces set up roadblocks on one of the main thoroughfares in Yopougon, a neighborhood across the lagoon from the presidential palace. They have been in a pitched battle with police since 6:30 a.m. Thursday, said a local resident who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

"The end is almost here. It's a matter of hours," said Patrick Achi, spokesman for Ouattara. "We issued our ultimatum yesterday ... If Gbagbo does not want the fighting to happen in Abidjan, he should surrender. If he doesn't, we have no choice."

It is not clear what the fighters will do if they manage to push their way to the presidential palace, located on a peninsula in the city center, surrounded on all sides by a glassy lagoon. In the early afternoon a column of smoke could be seen coming from several neighborhoods.

Shooting rang out from the base of one of the two bridges that spans the lagoon, offering access to the peninsula. Taxis made panicked U-turns on the waterside highway.

The fighters' arrival in Abidjan comes only a day after they seized the administrative capital of Yamoussoukro in central Ivory Coast. Pro-Ouattara forces also took the strategic port of San Pedro late Wednesday, and by one estimate now control about 80 percent of the country.

‘Republican Forces’ eyeing democracy

Ouattara has described his fighters as the "Republican Forces." The majority of the gunmen are drawn from the New Forces, a coalition of rebel groups that fought a brief 2002-2003 civil war, which left the country divided in two with the rebels holding the north.

"In order to end the escalation of violence in our country and in keeping with their mission to protect the population against militias and mercenaries under Gbagbo's control, (the rebels) have decided to re-establish democracy and enforce the choice of the people," he said.

The rebels have seized more than a dozen towns since beginning their offensive on Monday. After they took the capital, they did a victory lap in vehicles as people cheered and clapped.

They have faced almost no resistance but many fear that army troops still loyal to Gbagbo plan to make a final stand in Abidjan. But Ouattara's forces could confront fierce resistance in densely populated Abidjan, which is dangerously divided between those who support him and those who back Gbagbo.

The two men have vied for the presidency for months, with Ouattara using his considerable international clout to try to financially and diplomatically suffocate Gbagbo. At least 462 people have been killed and up to 1 million have fled their homes amid the postelection chaos.

The advance by pro-Ouattara forces was a last resort after all other diplomatic means had failed, his supporters say. Ouattara won the election with more than 54 percent of the vote and did not want to be seen as having taken the country by force.

Symbolic victory

So far, the rebels appear to be mostly disciplined although there have been sporadic reports of pillaging and several instances of revenge killings. His reliance on the irregular fighters could cause him to lose the moral high ground if they begin committing serious abuses.

Human Rights Watch documented attacks on villages, rapes and racketeering in the country's north, where they exercised control.

Overnight the fighters took the port of San Pedro, giving Ouattara access to the sea. They also reached Mama, the village where Gbagbo was born and where he built himself a mansion. It marked a symbolic victory, said Seydou Ouattara, a rebel spokesman who is not related to the president.

200 acres of land for refugees

In Liberia Thursday, officials were bracing for more influx of refugees. Cllr. Barnes confirmed that the Government of Liberia have provided 200 acres of land in Bahn, Nimba County  for the construction of camps that would cater to at least 15, 000 to 20, 000 refugees.

The LRRRC Boss said that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has already set schools and hired the services of some 78 teachers for the purpose of teaching the children fleeing the war in their county.

She said a team comprising of National Security Agency (NSA) and officers of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN), are expected to depart from Monrovia to Toe Town.

The purpose of the Liberian security, Cllr. Barnes stated are to screen the refugees, perhaps of arms.

Suleiman Momodu, UNHCR spokesman in Monrovia told FrontPage Africa that the UNHCR, working with UNICEF and World Food Programme (WFP) is responding to emergency in terms of food and medicine.

An official of the UNHCR agrees with the LRRRC Boss that security and logistical situation within 91 communities at border is a nightmare, the UNHCR is encouraging Ivorian Refugees to return to the camps in Bahn.

At present, he noted that about 2, 576 refugees have moved in the camps as a way of decongesting the border. He acknowledged that presence of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) at the border as well as Liberian security forces.

French forces step in

This comes among news that forces loyal to Alassanne Ouattara have entered Abidjan after taking San Pedro and Yamasoukro over the last two days. Over one million people have fled the Ivory Coast’s largest city in the last few months in expectation of a major battle for control between militias loyal to Ouattara, the widely acknowledged winner of the general election, and troops loyal to Laurent Gbagbo who is refusing to step down as president.

Reuters reported Thursday that French force have been deployed in the city to help protect French citizens. Reports say the sound of heavy artillery can be heard in the center of the city.

Since the beginning of the election crisis, Ivorians have been flocking over the Liberian border to escape violence and intimidation at the hands of both sides. As the fighting has moved southwards, so have the refugees, resulting in the large influx we are currently seeing in Grand Gedeh.