The Government of Liberia has descended on the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) over its condemnation of deployment of Armed Forces personnel at the Roberts International Airport (RIA) during the recent arrival of former President George Weah.
Speaking Tuesday, July 23, 2024, Information Minister Jerolinmek M. Piah explained that during the Independence Day thanksgiving service, the Pastor of the Liberty Christian Center welcomed everyone to the church but saw it wise to invite the LCC for an official welcoming statement; instead, the platform was seen as an opportunity to raise issues about the Roberts International Airport saga.
He said the person who spoke on behalf of the Liberia Council of Churches condemned the deployment of soldiers at the airport when Weah was coming into the country, but failed to focus on the holistic issue where people threatened to burn down the terminal were they to be denied access.
The minister said the LCC was silent on the real issue which the government thinks was unfair and will not allow it to slide.
Minister Piah clarified that the government did not deploy the Army because the former president was coming; hence, officers seen at the airport have been there for a while, deployed during the past administration.
Minister Piah said the soldiers were deployed at the airport when the country faced serious challenges with drugs and other harmful substances entering through the ports.
The minister Mr. Weah’s supporters invaded the point of entry which was a threat to the airport; there were angry crowd running around the entry point of the airport demanding access to the terminal and threatening to burn it down if denied access. He said when the police assigned at the entry point were overpowered by the angry crowd, they were compelled to call on the already assigned army personnel for backup to curtail the situation.
“The airport has regulations and if it is not regulated, the airport will be banned and traveling will be a problem for Liberians,” Minister Piah said.
According to him, rather than condemning the fact that there were people who weren’t traveling but forced themselves into the terminal, the LCC gave blind eyes to everything.
The Information Minister accused the church of being silent in the last six years and not seeing anything wrong in the society, and some people from the very church would threaten people from criticizing the government.
Minister Piah recalled that most recently, it was established that one of the leaders of a church duped poor Liberians of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the name of helping them to travel, but the church did not condemn that.
He said it is good that the church wants to speak on national issues but the government requires that it comes through with fairness.
