Terrifying images of war years covered Monrovia Monday when youthful members of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) emerged from their party headquarters to block roads, drawing in the police in pitch battles that left one person killed.
Police first used teargas to disperse the mob, but the mob became more defiant.
Gunfire was heard coming from CDC headquarters, and this left the situation to worsen.
Top police sources told this paper that one member of the police Emergency Response Unit (ERU) who had entered the fence of CDC headquarters was arrested with his life endangered as angry partisans took him hostage.
“The officer had to discharge his firearm in the process to save himself,” one source said.
But Police chief Marc Amblard told a press conference that preliminary reports suggest a Nigerian UNMIL officer may have fired after he was hit with a missile.
Justice Minister Christiana Tah, at the press conference, also dismissed claims that 3 people were killed as aired on the BBC. She further dismissed CDC assassination claims, pointing out that the government does not operate in such manners. She regretted the death of one person, promising that an investigation will be conducted.
As the police and CDC members battled out, CDC presidential candidate Winston Tubman, his running mate George Weah and Mr. Dew Mayson, an ally of the defeated National Democratic Coalition (NDC), were holed up in CDC’s headquarters.
Mr. Weah was the first to be sneaked out of the building in a party car, and Mr. Tubman was later taken in an UNMIL tank out of the fence. Mr. Mayson was also taken away safely.
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