By Mustapha Sesay
Natives of Sanoyea district, Bony County in Liberia, have allegedly raised objection to an appointment of a Sierra Leonean as their District Commissioner.
Commissioner Milton Varney, whose namewas said to have rejected by citizens of the district in 2009, was again appointed Commissionerfollowing an investigation that was conducted by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the district supported by Senator Jewel Howard-Taylor.
Natives of the district have argued that the embattled Commissioner had no trace of birth in the district before his appointment and that the district authorities had taken advantage of the death of the former Commissioner.
George Duannah, one of the aggrieved residents in the district, said a statement signed on behalf of the citizens clearly stated that the appointment was unacceptable, and that residents in district were being marginalized politically.
Duannah claimed in the letter that Senator Jewel Howard had supported the appointment of Commissioner Varney because he had done the same for the Senator during her re-election bid in December 2014 in a special senatorial election.
“The appointment of Milton Varney is not only a reconfirmation of the long held view that Senator Jewel Howard-Taylor is only for those who championed her re-election bid while those who opposed her re-election bid and are prominent people in the district are seen and treated as second class citizens,” the letter indicated
The angry native added: “I believe very strongly that the appointment of Varney, a man who doesn’t have any trace in the district is another bitter-pill that our people cannot swallow at this time. I do not have any personal grudge or issue with Varney but the appointing authority ought to know that Varney is aSierra Leonean native.Therefore, the district strongly rejects Varney’s appointment and is requesting for an emergency stakeholders’ meeting to chart the way forward.”
It is reported that the seeming tension has forced the Commissioner to flee the district and seek refuge in a nearby town of Totota, and that citizens of the district have insisted that they would not allow him to stay in the Commissioner’s Compound.
“We are not going to allow him sit in the Commissioner’s compound that we built from the district development fund because he is not a son of Sanoyea district,” one of the concerned people insisted.
(C) Politico 02/16/16
