MONROVIA — President Joseph Nyuma Boakai on Saturday defended the demolition of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) headquarters, insisting the motion was the enforcement of a court docket ruling and never a political choice.
“The regulation is the regulation. It’s not the federal government; it’s the authorities’s implementation of the regulation,” President Boakai informed reporters upon his return from Japan. “The police had been ordered to hold out the motion, they usually did. That demolition was merely the removing of individuals from premises that didn’t belong to them.”
The Liberia Nationwide Police stormed the CDC compound in Congo City early Saturday, implementing a ruling by the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court docket which awarded the 4.23-acre property close to Bernard’s Seashore to the Property of Martha Stubblefield Bernard.
Choose George W. Smith dominated that the CDC had no authorized possession of the land after reviewing deeds and boundary strains, and instructed the Montserrado County Sheriff to execute the eviction. On the eve of the operation, Police Inspector Basic Gregory Coleman introduced that the police would offer help to the sheriffs in finishing up the court docket’s mandate.
In a press release posted on his official Fb web page, Deputy Police Director for Operations, Cllr. J. Nelson Freeman, outlined the function performed by officers in the course of the train.
“We offered and maintained public order to stop violence, riots, or disturbances between the evicting social gathering and the occupants,” Freeman wrote.
“Our officers ensured the security and safety of lives and property, together with these of the owner, tenants, neighbors, and court docket officers.”
He careworn that the LNP’s involvement was in full compliance with the regulation and primarily based on a legitimate court docket order. “We enforced the regulation by guaranteeing that the eviction was carried out strictly in keeping with a legitimate court docket order or authorized mandate, thereby stopping any unlawful or compelled eviction,” he added.
However CDC leaders strongly condemned the demolition, arguing that the case stays earlier than the courts. Celebration Chairman Janga Augustus Kowo mentioned the CDC had filed appeals in two associated circumstances on the Civil Legislation Court docket.
“The case between the CDC and its landlord is a civil matter that’s nonetheless going by adjudication on the Liberian judiciary,” Kowo mentioned, describing the eviction as an invasion.
In the meantime, Eugene Lenn Nagbe, Chief of Employees to former President George Weah, the political chief of the CDC, is predicted to deal with partisans later immediately.
