By Lincoln G. Peters
Former Liberian warlord, now Nimba Senator Prince Y. Johnson, says attacks against former Liberian Chief Justice Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott and her daughter’s brutal murder are acts that can prompt rebellion.
“When people start dying mysterious death, people killing people, no improvement in the investigation, it gives rise to the formation of a rebel group that will disturb our peace and democracy,” Johnson warned during a radio program on Spoon FM Monday, 27 February 2023.
Last week, Cllr. Scott’s daughter Charloe Musu was gruesomely murdered before her siblings when armed criminals invaded the stateswoman’s Brewerville residence.
Cllr. Scott said she managed to flee for her life after she pepper-sprayed the attacker.
Before Charloe’s murder last week, Cllr. Scott said her home had been attacked twice in a row, and she reported those incidents to the police and the Minister of Justice, but the government did not lift a finger to prevent the third attack.
Reacting to the tragedy through a phone interview on Spoon FM, Senator Johnson wondered why is it that the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC)-led government has forgotten history so soon, especially what brought the war to the country.
Before becoming Nimba Senator and by extension Nimba’s political godfather, Johnson played a key role in Liberia’s brutal civil war that left over 200,000 dead and destroyed properties worth millions of dollars.
Johnson led the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) which oversaw the brutal murder of then-sitting President Samuel Kanyon Doe.
As Nimba Senator, he has served in a key role at the Liberian Senate on Defense and Veteran Affairs but was forced to leave the Senate committee job following U.S. sanctions against him under President Manneh Weah’s regime.
He recently broke political alliances with Mr. Weah and has become a vocal critic of the regime’s shortcomings.
Johnson warned that the recent attacks on Cllr. Scott’s residence which led to the death of her daughter Charloe Musu has the propensity to lead to the formation of a rebel group to rescue the country from bad governance, the mysterious death of peaceful Liberians, and many others.
He reminded the CDC regime that during Liberia’s civil war, many citizens joined the rebel group because they were tired of living under a dictatorial system that believed in violence and a failed system as it is allegedly seen today.
“We only had over thirty thousand army, and we were only one hundred and fifty commandos, well trained, and we dared with them from the border to Monrovia,” Johnson reflected on his rebel group’s past role in the Liberian conflict.
“We saw the suffering of the Liberian people and so when I am talking [about] this, I can always want to cry. Why are we forgetting history?” Senator Johnson questioned further.
Additionally, Senator Johnson reminded the CDC regime that when imprisoned former President Charles Ghankay Taylor took over, he establish all kinds of groups instead of focusing on the development of the country.
“He found all those groups for special operations because he [thought] he had control over violence. President Taylor kept Liberians in deep fear,” he said.
Senator Johnson suggested that it’s now time that the CDC government desist from all those small, small military and militia groups they are allegedly having, including the Sabu Unit and many others.
The Nimba Senator explained that former President Taylor continued this ugly act even after the election in 1997 until war broke out in the country.
He said that the war came because then President Taylor failed to provide good governance, adequate security protection for all Liberians, and better economic and international opportunities.
“Now, this government of President George M. Weah has come to power and therefore, they should concentrate on attracting direct foreign investment in Liberia, providing security, and good governance for all Liberians to benefit,” Johnson urged.
“We don’t want [a] war to come to our country. Let President Weah focus on investment to make people come here to provide [an] opportunity for our people so that they can have food on their table,” he pleaded.
The Nimba Senator pointed out that once people are killed daily, and people died under a regime, the international partners get afraid to come to the country and there will be no development.
He mentioned that Liberians alone can’t help, and Liberians in the diaspora can’t come because those on the ground can’t walk in the street at 6:00 PM.
“We just want to tell President Weah, let him bring this issue under control. Let him control his people. Anything that happens in this country, my great-grandson, Jefferson Koijee’s name is mentioned,” Senator Johnson cautioned the CDC regime.
“I beg them, we don’t want trouble in this country. There are millionaires and Liberians somewhere who want to invest, but they can’t come,” he continued.
He warned that those that are angry can do anything to rescue this country, saying if that happens it will disturb everyone.
He described the CDC government as an administration that is desperate for power, but no security for the citizens.
“In this public manner let me congratulate the Armed Forces of Liberia, they are professional and disciplined. The police now are becoming a partisan police which should not be,” he said.