By Olando Testimony Zeongar
LIBERIA – The George Weah-led government through Information Minister Ledgerhood Rennie, has labeled as a shameless and ridiculous liar, the Political Leader of the opposition Alternative Congress, Mr. Alexander B. Cummings.
In reaction to a recent statement made by Cummings, accusing the Government of Liberia of allegedly using the Political Leader of the All Liberian Party (ALP), Benoni W. Urey, for the ALP to have filed a lawsuit against the ANC and its political leader, Rennie accused Cummings of engaging in deliberate lies, indicating that it beats his (Rennie’s) imagination that people of high caliber, who he said are fighting for a single goal of the leadership of Liberia would choose to engage in deliberate lies about the Government.
Recently, in a BBC interview, while responding to a lawsuit filed against him by ALP regarding internal wrangling within what used to be the four-party Collaborating Political Party (CPP), Cummings expressed the belief that the Government of Liberia is using Urey to get at him aimed at destabilizing the opposition bloc, stating at the time that a united opposition makes it more difficult for President George Weah to retain state power after the conduct of the 2023 elections.
“I believe Mr. Urey is perhaps being used by the Government because a united opposition makes it more difficult for President Weah to replace himself,” Cummings told the BBC in an interview on Monday.
But Information Minister Rennie sharply differs with the ANC’s political leader, terming Cummings’ assertions as being shameless and ridiculous comments and allegations.
He went ahead to lash out at the CPP, averring that the political collaboration is experiencing very disgraceful and despicable internal wrangling in a political marriage that he said was cast in deceit from the inception of its formation.
Rennie observed that never in the political history of Liberia, except of recent years where the ruling Coalition government comprising the CDC, NPP, and LPDP, has the opposition bloc come together in any elections to run against the incumbent, noting that from time immemorial, the opposition community would only come together after losing an election, for the singular reason of criticizing the government of the day.
“But when election time is finished, they disintegrate. It is historical, we know that for a fact – and yet, someone would sit and say it is the government,” Rennie stressed, asking hypnotically, “it is the government that forged the document for which y’all in court?”
The ALP on 3 January 2021, took Cummings and his ANC to court on the charges of forgery and criminal conspiracy, on allegations that the ANC’s political leader along with some unidentified accomplices of his, forged the framework documents of the CPP, a political collaboration formed with the intent to oust President Weah at the ballot box in 2023.
Cummings, on Tuesday filed a criminal appearance bond in the penalty of US$2.5k to secure a bond and prevent him from being sent to jail – he has since reacted to the ALP’s lawsuit; terming it as being baseless and unfounded.
Howbeit, Information Minister Rennie reminded Cummings that the government was never a part of the arrangements that brought the CPP to being, indicating that the arrangements that gave birth to the CPP were based on deceit and hypocrisy, according to him; this is why the political marriage between the four parties is not yielding any results.
He stated that from day one of the formation of the CPP, it was already imminent that it would not survive, emphasizing, “Then somebody sits down and talks about the government is behind that. It is shameless, ridiculous and irresponsible, to say the least.”
He called on Cummings and his likes to own up to what he referred to as their own machinations, adding that whatever has gone wrong with the CPP for which it is no longer peaceful internally, must be handled in-house and that they should refrain from scapegoating and blame-gaming the government, which he says has its hands full with lots of things, as far as its development programs are concerned.
