–The UP’s VP Candidate Must Stop Peddling Rumors and Lies
–Sen. Koung Is Invoking Potential Tribal Bigotry and Animosity
By John Targekay
Gosh! I felt sick to my stomach after watching a Senator Jeremiah Koung video recording in which he said, “Look, I remember when I was in Buchanan, they used to bring children from Nimba in trailer … over 2, 300 children, put them down at the police station. And people go there and pay $5.00 Liberian dollars – it was Doe coin at that time – for each of those children…”
The Senator also added, “…Nimba children were dumped in well.” These statements reek of all the trappings of vicious tribal bigotry and rumors of the evilest kind being peddled by the Senator and the Vice Standardbearer of the Unity Party. Therefore, I am constrained to say, the Senator lied. I am openly challenging him to prove me wrong. Had the Senator said, “They say”, “I heard”, or “It was rumored”, I could have cut him some slacks. But the fact that Senator Koung spoke with vigor and certainty by giving the impression of an eyewitness, I can’t help but to say he lied with a straight face and he knows it. I can’t put it any other way.
First of all, the 7-corner $5 coin which Senator Jeremiah Koung is claiming to have been used as legal tender to “buy Nimba children” in Buchanan in the 1990s was no longer in circulation. The coin had long been replaced by the $5 (JJ Roberts) bank note in early to mid 1989 by the Liberian government. So, I do not know what Doe coin he is talking about. Second, is the Senator implicitly accusing the Liberian police assigned in Buchanan at that time of engaging in human trade by selling Nimba children? This question is necessary because, according to him, it was at the Buchanan Police Station that people were paying $5 for each child.
Senator Koon also indicated in the recording that Nimba people want justice. True, everyone wants justice. Nevertheless, the Senator has been in the Legislature, first as Representative and now Senator, for so many years. That means he has the power and authority in his hands. Why hasn’t he proffered a bill for the investigation of crimes allegedly committed by others including police officers who “sold Nimba children for $5 each?” Also, if he agrees with the lies and rumors that Nimba children were buried in well, why hasn’t he led a campaign for the exhumation of the remains of those he believes were buried in a well so the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against humanity can be punished?
Or why from 2003 when the war ended up to now, nobody, absolutely nobody (not Senator Koung or his political godfather Senator Prince Johnson) has taken journalists and human rights lawyers to the purported well? We know that all the shouting about Nimba people wanting justice is just a farce, a floor show demonstrated by Senator Koung to seek sympathy votes. We will leave that topic for discussion on another day.
Senator Koung, I urge you to do yourself a simple favor by stopping the lies and vicious rumor peddling tribal bigotry because such bigotry, lies and rumors have a way of resurrecting tribal animosities and tensions. The reckless, unfounded, and unsubstantiated statements uttered by you do not represent a person running for the nation’s second highest office. If you cannot do something in keeping with the law to find out the truth, just shut up, period! At this point in your political life, your utterances must always be measured, well thought of and factual. Making false claims with the intention of seeking tribal sympathy votes is woefully WRONG.
