GANTA, Nimba – The political leader of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction, Prince Y. Johnson, has said that Liberia might return to its past of instability should there be “cheating” in the upcoming 2017 presidential election.

The Nimba lawmaker made the statements last weekend when most opposition political parties congregated in Ganta to discuss a possible collaboration to field a candidate against the Unity Party.

“Liberians are not stupid people,” he said. “You honorable people sitting at this table that have the international contacts with the West, please tell them to guide the process and avoid cheating.”

Johnson continued: “The Liberian people are tired with massive corruption. If it continues, a popular uprising will take place.”

The statements, from a man who played a major role in the country’s civil conflict, are troubling. A second term senator, Johnson was notoriously filmed ordering the torture of former President Samuel Doe. He testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in 2010 on his role in the Liberian Civil War that started in Buutuo, Nimba in 1989.

Johnson recounted that he became a rebel leader in the fight against corrupt government officials through the sponsorship of the Association for Constitutional Democracy in Liberia, a group he said was formed in the United States and supported by current President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Amos C. Sawyer.  He added: “Today they are in power, and the government is corrupt like this.”

Johnson said it is the constitutional rights of citizens to “rise up” when peace and stability are endangered. He said the corruption practiced by Sirleaf was a “good’ recipe for instability to any nation.”

“The Tolbert regime was removed, and Tolbert killed along with 13 old men for corruption,” he said. “Taylor was chased out of Liberia for the same corruption… But today, corruption has become a vampire in our nation.”

The president has yet to comment on Johnson’s statement.

The war was launched by the former President Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia rebel group. Johnson collaborated with Taylor at the onset of the war, but later broke out with him and formed his own rebel faction.

Featured photo by Ken Harper