By: R. Joyclyn Wea
MONROVIA-It is no longer at ease since the United States Treasury Department pulled the rug from under the feet of Liberia’s former Solicitor-General, Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Chephus over acts of manipulation of clients’ contractions, over-use of power, corruption, misapplication, and misappropriation.
He got hotly melted on the Capitol Hill Campuses of the State-run, University of Liberia, (UL) when he had gone to inquire about the newly-established Fishery Department at the UL.
It was reported that the sanctioned former Government Official was disgraced by some students believed to be Members of the Campus-based, Student Unification Party, (SUP).
He has written the Administration of the University of Liberia complaining about these students.
The Students of UL chased Cllr. Cephus out, “singing rogue, rogue’, an action that has gone wide on social media.
Cephus is now pleading with the President and Authorities of the University to order an immediate investigation into the incident in order to rid the University of these troublemakers, social misfits, and hoodlums purporting to be students.
Cephus’ Communication to Dr. Julius S. Nelson reads “I present my profound compliments and best wishes for your good health, and for your excellent stewardship of our great university in these trying times; and I wish to complain to you and the UL Administration about a wanton and unprovoked attack on me and my vehicle, with sticks and rocks, by a group of students under the aegis of the Students Unification Party (SUP) on the main campus of the University of Liberia on 10 February 2023 at about 1700hrs (5:00 P.M.).”
The Communication furthered, “It may interest you to know that as a graduate of the William R. Tolbert Jr., College of Agricultural College and Forestry, I had gone on the main campus of the university to get some information about a newly established degree program in fisheries.”
Cephus further narrated in the communication that at the main campus, “I parked my vehicle towards the former girls’ dormitory, and while awaiting the information, I heard someone yelling in an abrasive tone with my name, and in a split second, I saw a posse of men armed with rocks and sticks surging towards my vehicle and chanting “rogue, rogue, Syrenius Cephus, rogue, rogue.”
He further lamented that the students started to violently bang on my vehicle, some using rocks, and others with sticks.
“As I gradually reversed from the girls’ dormitory in an attempt to turn around, I heard a voice in the crowd saying “let us mob him to death,” and as I tried to disembark from my vehicle to plead with them to see the reason to stop, the crowd swelled violently, and foaming with terror, they encircled my vehicle and began to attack me from all sides as I drove out of the campus,” he added.
According to him, he is still feeling distraught, and quite speechless in the aftermath of this terror and near-death experience. I didn’t see this coming, and I never thought that the University of Liberia is now home to this kind of primitive behavior.
As an intellectual trained by the University of Liberia, Cephus says he feels deeply baffled not just by the scale of the attacks on his person, life, and vehicle on mere allegations but by the fact that such crude and barbaric conduct has occurred not in the ghetto or slums but on the main campus of the University of Liberia has a long and enviable history of being a “light in the darkness” and a bastion of sound reasoning, frank and brutal exchanges of issues and debates absent violence.
“It didn’t occur to me that the University of Liberia has been ‘ghettoized’ at the expense of tolerance and freedom of expression by wretched thugs, goons, and hooligans who have cleverly masked out their impotence and viciousness under the guise of being students and are using the premises of the university as a breeding ground for terror and mayhem against innocent people.
He further “Mr. President, it is saddened to say that I was violently clubbed and mobbed with stones and sticks on account of being on US Treasury Department sanctions absent any investigation or incontrovertible evidence consistent with due process. He continues “This is not the University of Liberia that we all know, and this is not the University of Liberia where I was trained both as an agronomist and a lawyer.”
He says “While I still plead my innocence to these scathing sanctions unduly imposed upon me, and strongly believe that I am innocent and quite certain that history will be kind to me, I humbly request that the university authorities should not only condemn in the strongest terms these medieval rebel-styled actions and activities embarked upon by a gang of mendacious ghouls and political pranksters but will take the most appropriate administrative actions consistent with its handbook to arrest its revered premises from being reduced to a terror infrastructure.”
Alphonso Toweh
Has been in the profession for over twenty years. He has worked for many international media outlets including: West Africa Magazine, Africa Week Magazine, African Observer and did occasional reporting for CNN, BBC World Service, Sunday Times, NPR, Radio Deutchewells, Radio Netherlands. He is the current correspondent for Reuters
He holds first MA with honors in International Relations and a candidate for second master in International Peace studies and Conflict Resolution from the University of Liberia.