Following recent protest by some students of the University of Liberia (UL) a Government run institution where a group of individuals identified as “student militants” over the past months have been chasing away two senior Government officials who had reportedly gone on a visit on including the Vice President of Liberia, Jewel Howard-Taylor, the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel Tweah, the former Solicitor General of Liberia, Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus, and Aloysius Howe Personal Aide to Liberia’s Finance Minister was attack and chased out of the campus of the University.
As a result of this, two lawmakers of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Montserrado County Representatives; Acarous Gray and Dixon Seboe disclosed last week that they will move on the main campus of the University tomorrow, Monday, March 13, 2023 to have lunch, challenging anyone to threaten their movement.
With this threat by the two lawmakers, a former student leader is calling on both Representatives Acarous Gray and Dixon Seboe to keep a distance of 20 miles from the UL main campus on Monday and the remaining days in the Month of March. Atty. Rufus Neufville said the statements by the lawmakers that they will move on the UL campus with their mobilized supporters to have “lunch” constitute Unwarranted Provocation.
As national leaders, they are expected to help the government promote peace instead of making reckless utterances that tend to cause crises. The former lawmaker also called on Representative Yekeh Kolubah to abort his planned visit to the UL campus on Monday.
While we call on the students to remain peaceful, we want to remind the lawmakers that self-defense is a right; and invading the UL main campus may trigger this right under extreme conditions.
Atty. Neufville, who is currently a civil society leader, has promised to initiate discussions with student leaders and the UL authorities with the goal of elevating the level of tolerance and pluralism at the University. He also promised free legal services to students on issues bordering on academic freedom and free speech.
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