Tubmanburg, Bomi County – The Liberia Women Situation Room (WSR) in collaboration with the Tubmanburg youth association, held a one-day county peace awareness program.
The program, held at the Vincent Compound Multi-Purpose Building in Tubmanburg city, brought together youths from across the county.
Youths representing various communities in Bomi County attended the one day campaign.
Amos Weah, the regional coordinator of WSR for Bomi, Grand Cape Mount and Gbarpolu Counties, said the event was aimed at creating awareness on the peaceful transition of power from one democratically elected government to another in Country.
“We are doing this in order to help our people understand the smooth transition of one government to another democratically elected government that we are expecting in 2018,” he said.
Weah added that the awareness was also to educate young people about the effects of violence during this election period.
“Violence is bad and this program is also gear towards educating young people about how violence during election affects us during the period of the election,” he said.
A potential run-off between opposition Coalition of Democratic Change and the ruling Unity Party is being delayed due to ongoing legal action by Liberty Party against results of the first round of voting announced by the National Elections Commission.
Liberty Party has accused the NEC of elections “irregularities and fraud”. This has ignited mix views and debate about a potential eruption of violence in the country.
At the event in Bomi County, Lahai Fahnbullah, Tubmanburg Youth Association chairperson, asserted that political leaders are mainly instigators of election violence.
He cautioned youth to avoid being carried away “by any decision that will undermine the country’s peace and democracy”.
“The politicians in our country Liberia are the main people who instigate violence and young people follow and we don’t want the youth of Bomi County to get involved in any acts that will undermine our peace,” Fahnbulleh said.
Alpha Daffae Senkpeni is a multi-media journalist and fact checker with over 18 years’ experience. Senkpeni is the Director and Senior Editor of Local Voices Liberia (LVL) – a network that operates Liberia’s major independent fact checking desk. LVL has implemented several media development projects funded by USAID and the European Union. Since 2021, he has led the organization’s implementation of fact checking projects including fact checking workshops for journalists, media literacy programs, and community forums – all geared toward countering disinformation and expanding the culture of fact checking.
Senkpeni holds a law degree from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law and a BSc in Mass Communications from the University of Liberia. He’s also an alumnus of the Radio Netherlands Training Center (RNTC) with a certificate in Digital Content to Counter Disinformation. He has also attended several fact checking trainings.
