Regular learning activities were interrupted at the State-Run University of Liberia (UL) main campus on Capitol Hill on Monday, 13th March 2023 as police tear gas students during a violent clash ensued between members of the UL Campus-based political party, Students Unification Party (SUP), and Supporters of Montserrado County District #8 Representative Moses Acarous Gray.
The violence started during the arrival of Representative Gray on the UL campus when members of the University of Liberia (UL) Students Unification Party and the Progressive Students Alliance (PROSA) engaged in stone-throwing among themselves, over who owned the University Campus.
It was clearly seen by our reporter that members of the Student University Party (SUP) were later at controls on the ground of the University when strange supporters of Representative Gray, who were accompanying him to the UL campus, also began to throw stones at the SUP members, the situation that resulted to the injury of other students, while some fled the Campus.
Later on, Montserrado County District 8 Representative, Acarous Gray, Monday gained access to the University of Liberia Capitol Hill Campus amidst opposition from the Student Unification Party.
It can be recalled that students at the University of Liberia especially those that are believed to be members of the Student Unification Party have developed a constant mood of chasing Public Officials and other citizens which according to them are linked with corruption and academic fraud as in the case of Vice President Chief Jewel Howard Taylor and the recent attack of Aloysius Howe.
The situation has drawn the attention of the University of Liberia Faculty Association (ULFA) to strongly condemned unwarranted attacks on Faculty, Public Officials, Students, and Visitors on the campuses of the University of Liberia, something which unfairly indicated that attacking someone because of his or her association or alignment is the least intellectual weapons anyone can use.
Against this backdrop, Montserrado County District 8 Representative, Moses Acarous Gray, grew interested in visiting the University of Liberia’s main campus on Monday, 13th March 2023.
But the SUP refuted Representative Gray’s weekend social media post of plans to have lunch on Monday with students of the University while creating voters’ registration awareness.
Meanwhile, the Administration of the University of Liberia has canceled all normal academic and Administrative activities on its Capitol Hill campus.
The UL Administration in their release said the cancelation of activities arises out of the concern for the safety of Students, Faculty, and Staff of the institution, noting that activities will resume on Tuesday, March 14th.
Representative Yekeh Kolubah joined the fray in what he calls the defense of the students of the Student Unification Party.
What astonishes most people is that this same Yekeh Kolubah manhandled and brutalized students on the main campus when he was a ranking officer of the defunct SOD of the Liberian National Police during the regime of erstwhile President Charles Ghankay Taylor. Students got killed and several wounded during that raid.
Veteran Liberian Journalist Tom Winston Momboe wrote on his Facebook page “Was it not the same man who was part of the SOD/ATU battalion that invaded the UL campus in March 2001? During that incident, some students were reportedly killed and several female students raped by the invading forces. I was a student then and also covered that story as a reporter working for the Voice of America”.
Momboe was quick to sign a disclaimer” Why are we so quick to forget history? I am not supporting anyone in the reported violence today but that man does not have the moral compass to visit that campus. He’s a perpetrator-in-chief”; He concluded.
