In its drive to assist the national security apparatus in maintaining peace during the conduct of the October 10, 2023, Presidential and Legislative elections, the Community Watch Forum of Liberia (CWFL) has set up a task force in the 15 political subdivisions of the country.
Prior to the setting up of the taskforce, the national leadership of the CWFL conducted a massive awareness on non-violence with its members and citizens within the 15 counties to ensure that the pending national elections are conducted void of violence confrontation among opposing political party supporters.
The group which has over 150, 000 members across the country, almost a month ago activated all of its structures in the 15 political subdivisions of the country followed by the setting up of the task force for the pending national elections.
The CWFL national leadership used its three weeks assessment tours of rural Liberia to visit border points around the country at which time it discovered that out of the 162 border points, only 60 are being manned by Liberian joint security personnel; recommending that the unmanned or porous borders should be tightened by Liberian security personnel and his group to prevent the entry of intruders on election day.
The CWFL is a civil society conscientious security- -alert and monitoring organization established by the defunct United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) with the collaboration of the Liberia National Police over ten years ago to assist various national security apparatuses in preventing crimes in communities and track down wanted criminals absconding justice.
According to the National Chairman of the CWFL, Mr. I. Nyenati Kaffey, refresher training for members of the CWFL’s task force and other members of the group in pro-active community policing to deter criminality, curbing violence and prevention riot is regularly conducted at the LNP’s Academy in Paynesville, noting that his taskforce is fully equipped with the skills and techniques to abort any unforeseen ugly eventually.
The task force, he opined, will be deployed alongside other national security agents at every polling center across the country as agreed by LNP authorities and its mandate is to preserve peace at those centers as well as apprehend troublemakers and turn them over the requisite government security agencies for further action.
The initiative for the conduct of the non-violence forum and the setting up of the CWFL’ taskforce, Mr. Kaffey mentioned, was solely handled by his organization with no financial assistance from the LNP as was envisaged; but expressed optimism that with the renewed commitment from the LNP leadership, hope is alive as his organization will become more vibrant as financial support starts filtering in sooner.
In acknowledgment of the LNP’s renewed commitment to collaborate with the CWFL, a letter dated July 27, 2023, under the signature of police Inspector-General Col. Patrick Sudue indicates: “We present our compliments and expressed our profound gratitude to members and leaders of the Community Watch Forum of Liberia for your unwavering support towards the works of the Liberia National Police (LNP) in sustaining the peace and sanity of our beloved country, Liberia.”
The letter further: “As we are gear towards the commencement of the campaign activities for the 2023 general and presidential elections, the LNP has envisaged to embark on a nationwide stakeholder’s dialogue aimed at raising awareness and sensitization among key stakeholders and the citizenry for the conduct of non-violence and peaceful elections come October 10, 2023.
The letter highlighted that in view of the aforementioned; the Liberia National Police invites the CWFL to a one day dialogue which was held July 31, 2023 at the LNP Headquarters on Capitol Hill to brainstorm on strides to holding a successful election on October 10, 2023.
