New Democrat (Monrovia)
Boima J. V. Boima
30 November 2011
Congress for Democratic Change’s (CDC embattled chair, Mrs. Geraldine Doe Sherif, has denied claims that she and other party executives received money in return for their rejection of street protests their party has decreed.
The Montserrado County senator-elect, attacked several times by partisans, told this paper in an exclusive interview Tuesday that, “The President of the Republic of Liberia knows very well that I have never met with her. I have never talked to anybody within the Unity Party. I have never collected or received money from her or any other person within the UP”.
The CDC standard bearer, Cllr. Winston Tubman had called on his partisans to engage in a month-long demonstration against the outcome of the just ended elections but Sen. Doe-Sheriff and other members of the executive committee rejected the march calling for calm in the aftermath of the elections.
Following series of disagreements, the party finally axed Sen. Doe-Sheriff and five other executive committee members, accusing them of “betrayal and labeling them as traitors.”
They also accused the expelled executive of receiving bribe from the governing UP to cancel the protest.
But Sen. Doe-Sheriff, whose residence was attacked by unknown men who threw petrol bombs at it this week, said she rejected the party’s planned demonstration on the basis of peace.
“We called for calm so that peace can prevail in the country. And I don’t have any regret if I am expelled from the party for calling for peace. Then, it’s a good thing and I am asking all of us to be calm and refrain from violence,” she said.
The senator said when the party announced that it was going to stage series of demonstrations for one month, as executive members, they convened a meeting to address the issue.
“We said no, we as party officials, cannot seat here and allow these kind of demonstrations to go on, so we convene at our district 5 headquarters to discuss the issue. The meeting was not secret because text messages were sent to everybody in the executive informing them about it,” she stressed.
She noted that after this meeting and their subsequent call on their partisans to accept their won legislative seats in the “interest of peace”, she received a phone call from her vice standard bearer, George Weah on Saturday evening demanding her to turn over the party vehicle which according to her, she did following some heated arguments.
“Amb. Weah called me on Saturday evening after our meeting and informed me that he wanted his pick-up…that it is his personal property. And I said but chief, I am the chairman of the party how can this pick-up that is marked CDC be your personal property.
“And he said, ‘if you don’t send my car, I will send men there and the police…And my husband advised me to give the car and I gave it. And that night, when the men came for the car, they started to make remarks that I ‘betrayed the party’ and in-fact, they will go after me,” she said.
She noted that though she cannot link anyone to the attack on her private residence with police investigations still ongoing, it was uncivilized and an assassination attempt on her life and that of her family, adding: “Whoever did it, is uncivilized, because when you come to attack somebody’s home, it means that you want to kill innocent children.”
Saying though she has received several death threats from some members within the CDC, the Senator-elect insisted, “No amount of threat or intimidation would kick her out of the party. “CDC is not a Boys Scout where you can just wake up and expel people. I am still in charge as chair. I have not received any letter to that effect.”
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