Liberia: Protesters Storm Senator Prince Johnson’s Church, Forcing Evacuation and Service Cancellation

Paynesville — A youth group below the banner Nationwide Patriotic Celebration (NPP) Youth Council Sunday created panic at Senator Prince Johnson’s Christ Chapel of Religion Ministry, forcing members to flee for security after they stormed the church’s premises chanting “Battle Crimes Court docket”.

The group’s actions additionally pressured the infamous warlord turned evangelist to name off his service.

The Nimba County Senator had final week knowledgeable Liberians through Fb to assemble at his church Sunday, the place he promised to reply to Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, who through the week branded him a “killer” throughout an endorsement program for President George Weah held by Legislative staffers within the joint chambers of the Capitol Constructing.

Previous to Sunday’s service, the Nimba Senator had knowledgeable his viewers that he had gotten a touch that “hooligans” from the ruling Coalition for Democratic (CDC) had been across the church’s premises and had deliberate to assault him and disrupt the service.

Senator Johnson, who had ready a theme: “Boring and Confused Management Brings Plague to a Nation” with textual content coming from the ebook of Acts 20:17-35, instantly modified the theme apparently to keep away from “hooligans” inflicting accidents to his members after the strain exterior begins to escalate.

Peter Blidii, Jr, Nationwide Vice Chairman for Press and Propaganda of the Nationwide Patriotic Celebration Youth Council who led the protesters mentioned, that they had assembled at Senator Johnson’s church after his open invitation to Liberians to prove for his response to the vice chairman.

Stated Blidii, “We’re right here as a result of Senator Johnson had promised to vilify the usual bearer of the NPP, Jewel Howard-Taylor. We do not combat warfare, we combat intellectually and at this time it is a historic day. We’re right here with women and men of the Nationwide Patriotic Celebration.

“We’re right here to worship with Prince Johnson and to additionally let him know that the NPP is a radical Political Celebration.”

“In as a lot as he used his Fb web page to provide a touch that he was going to vilify our Political Chief, we’re right here too to name for Battle Crimes Court docket as a result of we all know he is a assassin,” he added.

Addressing a press convention after the incident Sunday, Senator Johnson claimed the assault on his church was orchestrated by Howard- Taylor, the Monrovia Metropolis Mayor, Jefferson Koijee and Maritime Fee boss, Lenn Eugene Ngabe, whom he alleged they’re planning to assassinate him.

“You witnessed what occurred, you had been there, it isn’t one thing that I’m telling you. I simply solely need to overemphasize what all of us noticed. What I heard from one them over saying it’s Jewel Howard- Taylor instructed them together with Koijee to come back and disrupt the church, combat us, and wound the individuals. I’m the goal,” he mentioned.

“I need to say due to Police Director Patrick Sudue. After I known as, I could not get him, I despatched him a textual content then they despatched police as an alternative of the police speeding to the church. They stood on the junction at LBS, so when these boys completed doing the job now, if they’ve kill then they are going to come,” he mentioned.

In response to Senator Johnson, he was reportedly warned by a senior member Govt Safety Service (EPS) previous to the assault on his church to beef up his private safety because the CDC- led authorities recalibrated by means of the straight orders from Vice President Taylor Koijee to hit him after the earlier plan failed.

He warned the CDC-led authorities to desist from sending extremists after him because the act of violence instigated on the entrance of the US Embassy in Monrovia when protesting college students had been flogged on the orders of Koijee, when District 8# Consultant Acarious Grey entered the College of Liberia campus and beat college students and disrupted courses.

“I’m 70, you assume I’ll die out of bother, whoever hunts me will die. I do know Jefferson Kailee’s home, I do know these individuals’s homes. If you happen to can hunt me, my individuals select to hunt you. It isn’t battle. We do not need battle. We beg you allow us to train our freedom properly, he warned.

In the meantime, the ruling CDC which is a coalition with the NPP has termed Sen. Johnson’s allegation in opposition to the social gathering and its stalwarts as a “deliberate and malicious misrepresentation of the occasions.”

“First, the CDC needs to make it categorically clear that as an establishment, it doesn’t condone violence of any variety and didn’t plan nor execute one on the Senator’s Church. Nonetheless, the social gathering is of the opinion that in our new dispensation, the appropriate to assemble and voice one’s views are absolutely assured below the regulation,” the social gathering acknowledged in a press launch hours following the incident.

In response to the CDC, the group gave the impression to be exercising these rights in a non-violent method. Even Senator Johnson, in opposition to whom the protest was directed, didn’t say in his interview with the VOA following the protest that it was violent.