Koijee urges dismissed employees to seek asylum.

Koijee has argued that he retained partisans of the ruling Unity Party in their positions at the MCC when he was Mayor of Monrovia under the CDC regime.

Monrovia, August 19, 2024: Former Monrovia Mayor Jefferson T. Koijee has urged dismissed employees of the Monrovia City Corporation to seek asylum. He did not say where.

The former Monrovia City Mayor also described the Monrovia City Corporation’s (MCC) dismissal of government employees as counterproductive.

The secretary general of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) has accused President Joseph Nyuma Bokai of allegedly mandating the Civil Service Agency (CSA) and Monrovia Mayor John-Charuk Siafa to dismiss scores of Liberians.

In a statement released over the weekend, Koijee accused the government of a grand plot that allegedly began with the initial dismissals of nine City Government of Monrovia employees.

“The dismissals are counterproductive to addressing the unemployment crisis in Liberia, but they undermine the fundamental ideas on which Mr. Boakai campaigned to rescue Liberia,” said Koijee.

Koijee argued that to have dismissed innocent Liberians on the grounds of social media posts is an utter political target against not just those dismissed but their wives and children.

The former ruling CDC’s sanctioned ex-mayor alleged gross human rights violations in the Boakai regime, ranging from alleged police murders against innocent Liberians and grand corruption to sexual and gender-based violence.

Koijee claimed that the CSA has conspired with the Monrovia City Government and dismissed legally employed Liberians who did not commit institutional crimes nor external threats.

Koijee believes that Mayor Siafa has proven his incompetence, saying his successor cannot govern Monrovia’s state affairs.

According to Koijee, those who used propaganda to argue governance under Mr. George Manneh Weah’s rule are now authoring a system of political witch-hunt and violating the constitution of the Republic of Liberia.

He encouraged dismissed MCC employees to seek asylum outside of Liberia because President Boakai commissioned their dismissals.

He suggested that they should not endeavor to test Liberia’s court system but seek asylum.

“The action of Mayor Siafa to have dismissed those nine employees risked their lives in Liberia because when someone is illegally dismissed, he/she sees it as a threat to not just their economic well-being but their protection of state security,” he claimed.

Koijee argued that when Assistant Internal Affairs Minister Mike Jabateh threatened sitting Representative Yekeh Kolubah, the rule of law was nowhere, and Jabateh still went to work.

Additionally, Koijee accused President Boakai of violating the tenure positions of public officials by suspending tenured officials despite a Supreme Court ruling against the Executive.

The CDC secretary general alleged that President Boakai masterminded the reduction of the Judiciary’s budget as a retaliation to strangulate the Supreme Court of Liberia through its budgetary allotment.

“Article 18 of the constitution of Liberia explicitly prohibits dismissal based on partisanship, tribe, creed, and other discriminatory factors,” Koijee argued.

While he was mayor, Koijee said he retained partisans of the Unity Party, and his presence at the Monrovia City Government did not threaten the survival of the Liberian people.

“Whether you were Unity Party Partisans, ANC, or LP, I saw everyone as Liberians where we could all work together and contribute to our city’s ordinance,” he said.