Monrovia – Alexander Cummings has said it’s a “wrong politics” by the government of President George Weah to use the courts to stop a political opponent, adding it abuses the powers of the courts and undermines its neutrality.
The Alternative National Congress (ANC) standard bearer said democratic governments do not abuse the courts in order to choose who they would prefer to run against in the ensuing elections.
Cummings, along with his chairman Senator Daniel Naatehn and Secretary General Attorney Aloysius Toe, is on trial before the Monrovia Magisterial Court having been charged with “forgery and criminal conspiracy.”
Describing the allegations as “false and completely baseless”, Cummings claimed his accusers, Benoni Urey and his All Liberian Party (ALP), and the Government of Liberia know these charges are baseless and false.
“We also now know that Mr. Urey and the Government of Liberia are not alone in this conspiracy to lie and tarnish our hard-earned reputation and integrity,” Cummings said.
“Urey and the government are also being supported and cheered on by other leaders and members of the CPP with whom we have worked for more than two years but who are now desperate to break up the CPP out of fear of democratically contesting against us and losing in a primary, the process we agreed to use to choose the Standard Bearer of the CPP in the 2023 Elections.”
Cummings claimed the Weah-led administration, with the help of some of members of the opposition, are conniving to come after him “because they know I and the ANC represent a different threat, a unique level of seriousness…. set out to change the corrupt political system they are presiding over.”
“They know that I and the ANC are the only ones with the integrity to say what we mean and mean what we say…. including seriously changing the system… to keep the promises we made to the Liberian people not to break up the CPP.”
“In order to target me and the ANC, the others would gladly break up the CPP, and will not lose one night of sleep over breaking their promises to the Liberian people. While this has become the normal for many in the current system, lying to our people, breaking promises…it goes against the very fabric of what I and the ANC have proven we are about.
This is why they have trumped up these false charges against me and the ANC.”
Cummings described the ongoing trail as an target him and his party This is what this trial is about. This is wrong politics. And all Liberians need to pay close attention to this, and join us in acting and speaking out against it.
In 2023 and beyond, Liberians have a right to choose who their leaders will be. (repeat this twice and pause).
Cummings added that neither the government nor “its favored opposition” has any business deciding for the Liberian people who they would like to run against by politically persecuting the candidate they are afraid of so as to exclude him or her from the electoral process.
“There are many examples all over the world where this type of behavior is practiced, and it has led to some of the longest running and most devastating regimes the world has seen. In such situations, the people most negatively impacted are everyday citizens and those who benefit are those at the top,” he said.
“This is not one of the rights we give to the government to exercise over us:the right to choose on our behalf. Therefore, the government conniving to do this is a violation of our rights, and an abuse of the powers we have constitutionally given. In times such as these, we must not remain on the sidelines, we must not remain silent.”
“The right to choose our leaders every six years or in any election is a right we the people continue to constitutionally withhold for ourselves collectively as Liberian citizens. Through this trial, the government and its opposition collaborators are now looking to take away that right from the people of Liberia. Again, this is wrong politics, and it is dangerous for the peace of OUR nation!”