IPNEW – The United States of America’s Ambassador, Mr. Michael R. McCarthy, is cautioning every Liberian, including political actors, to avoid the repeat of the “disruption” that took place at Senator Price Y. Johnson’s Christ Chapel of Faith Church on Sunday, May 21, 2023.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, May 31, the US Diplomat, however, warned: “My congratulations come however with a caveat: going forward, I expect all parties to avoid a repeat of the nonsense we witnessed two weeks ago with the political disruption of a church service.”
Amb. McCarthy had earlier commended political party leaders, civil society organizers, and international dignitaries on the signing of the Farmington River Declaration last month. He added: “These signatories made a clear commitment to prevent violence, cooperate with law enforcement agencies, expand voter education, avoid inflammatory language and disinformation, and accept the official election results, among many other elements. To the political leaders: if your signatures mean anything, we depend on your honor to uphold those high standards invoked in the Declaration.”
According to the US Ambassador, who has spent more than three decades in the diplomatic circle, the true test of Liberian stakeholders’ commitment will be the execution of a free, fair, transparent, and peaceful election process over the next 19 weeks on October 10, 2023. He added: “I urge media institutions and integrity organizations to keep politicians of all parties accountable to their important Declaration commitments.”
He further urged both institutions to not only focus their attention on just simply reporting on the “horse race;” but “ask politicians the tough questions about their platforms and records, shed light on policy inconsistencies, and remind the public what they stand to gain—or lose—in the lead up to October. It is not easy, but your efforts to hold politicians and government officials accountable are critical to upholding Liberia’s democracy.”
What Happened at Sen. PYJ’s Church
On that Sunday, the Nimba County Senator accused Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor and Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson T. Koijee of hiring hooligans, who disrupted the church service. According to him, he is the target of those he accused.
The controversial Nimba County Senator, who in the early 1990s, was the commander in chief of the rebel movement, Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), a breakaway faction from Jewel’s former husband, Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), disclosed that an officer of the presidential guard of Liberia, had warned him on the evening of Tuesday, May 16, to do all to beef up his security as an alleged hit order has been released on his life. Sen. Johnson, who didn’t name the purported officer said, “I tell you something few days ago, I was sitting on my porch my security came and said that one EPS (Executive Protective Service) officer was outside and wanting to see me urgently. It was past 5pm in the evening on Tuesday. And, I said but let him come back early tomorrow because Wednesday there is no job, I won’t go to the Capitol. He said ‘No, I must see you now.’”
Sen. Johnson said he instructed his security to allow the fellow to come in so he could hear what the urgent matter was. “He came in and said ‘Beef up your security. There is a straight order from Jewel Howard-Taylor and Jefferson Koijee to hit on you, to knock you down.’ I asked him, to assassinate me? He said, ‘Don’t call my name; that’s the plan.’”
According to Sen. Johnson, who has always boosted of having enough men to retaliate or return fire by fire should there be any hit on his person, disclosed again: “The last time, I was threatened and that matter was addressed when the opposition parties intervened and they drew back. But they still got that plan to carry it out.”
The Nimba County Senator, who was once a former very close ally to the Liberian leader than spoke directly to President George Weah: “When I supported you, I was the holy ghost. When I drew back my support, now I am a war criminal. You want to kill me. If that is your plan, you and Jewel Howard Taylor, I will tell you, you can’t kill me.”
“You went to the US Embassy, people were having peaceful demonstration, you flogged them, you Jefferson Koijee; Acarous Gray, you entered the University campus, you beat people, you can’t do that nonsense to me!”
According to the Senator, just at the snap of his index and middle fingers, people will surround him giving him maximum security protection.
“But if I should that, they are going to say, ‘PYJ wants war’. I don’t want war; I really don’t want any trouble. The fact that I am now 70 years old, it means that I am well protected, first by God and by my supporters.”
