Special Aide De Camp to former Minister of National Defense Accuses Monrovia City Mayor of Assassination Ploy Over his Life.
By Jefferson Doe
The Special Aide De Camp to former Minister of National Defense Brownie J. Samukai, Sergeant Lorenzo Richard Stryker, of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) has alarmed fears over his life – alleging an assassination ploy to get rid of him. Lorenzo Richard Stryker informed a journalist in Monrovia that on Liberia’s Independence Day – July 26, 2020 – while leaving the home of his friend, Ivan Karley – in the City of Paynesville outside Liberia’s capital where he had gone for a visit, he came under heavy attack and was severely flogged by a group of 5 men wearing CDC red beret and party t-shirts whilst stopping a taxi cap to go home around the evening of 18:00hrs to 1900hrs.
The men allegedly believed to be members of the Sabu Unit of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change of President George Weah attacked him and beat him gruesomely. He alleged that his flogging came in the wake of allegations of he being a part of the former ruling party who is allegedly plotting with other soldiers and opposition figures to bring down the government of Ex-Soccer Legend – George Manneh Weah.
This recent saga on the life of Lorenzo Richard Stryker is the third in the series of bloody attacks on his life allegedly under the instruction of Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Tamba Koijee. On the faithful date of November 29, 2020 – a National Holiday enacted by an act of legislation to commemorate the birthday anniversary of Liberia’s 19 President William V.S. Tubman – Special Aid De Camp Lorenzo alleged that a group of men in the evening hours whilst he was returning from a birthday celebration were chasing after him to get rid of his life but when he noticed, he began to run for his life and went to a crowded area for rescue. According to him, he told a reporter that he is convinced that it was the Sabu Unit of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change that was chasing after him under the instruction of the head of the elite Sabu Unit and Mayor of the City of Monrovia respectively.
This is not strange news since the inception of this government where citizens in general including journalists, government auditors, civil rights activists, and opposition political figures to alarm by assassination attempts on their lives as well as mysterious deaths and disappearances of citizens.
Another incident occurred on April 6, 2021, when Lorenzo had gone to visit the Center for the Exchange of Intellectual Opinions (CEIOS) located on Carey Street in Central Monrovia. According to Lorenzo Richard Stryker, when he was identified by the group of Sabu Unit Members immediately they attacked him into a face fight but he narrowly escaped the scene where goons and thugs believed to be supporters of the ruling government gathered. He accused the Mayor of the City of Monrovia, Jefferson Tamba Koijee, of being the rank leader of the CDC’s Sabu Unit that instructed his men to beat on him.
Like Lorenzo’s unfortunate attacks, this is not the first of its kind for the Monrovia City Mayor to come under waves of public spotlights for leading goons and death squads to target and eliminate citizens, especially opposition politicians, civil rights activists and journalists alike perceived by him to be opposition to the ruling government and party. It can be recalled on November 17, 2018, Cornelia Kruah-Togba, the candidate of the former ruling Unity Party, accused Monrovia City Mayor and Chairman of the CDC Youth League – Jefferson Koijee of attacking them (UP candidate and supporters) with machetes, stones, clubs and other deadly weapons. Below is a news outlet link to the allegation!
The Democracy Watch Newspaper can recall vividly in October of 2020, four auditors. who were employees of the government that completed audits of some government ministries and agencies died under mysterious and suspicious circumstances with their lifeless bodies formed on the streets and some at their residences.
In the same year 2020, Liberia’s President George Weah appealed to the United States government to assist the country in the investigations of the deaths of the four government auditors after a huge outcry and public outrage. It can be recalled after the deaths of these auditors, a Liberian journalist and prolific editor formerly of the Parrot Newspaper – Julius T. Jaesen –reportedly absconded the country and reportedly went into exile in neighboring Sierra Leone for his critical reportage in the newspaper revealing the startling revelations of how the four auditors were allegedly decimated by death squads hired by the Incident Management Team that allegedly ate the funds that were intended to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and wanted to cover up their corruption.
