Monrovia — November 7, 2011 is one of the few dates that would remain engraved in the history of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC). The date marks the killing and wounding of several members of their party who were protesting election results believing that they were cheated in the first round of that year's presidential elections and threatening a boycott to the run-off.
The shooting occurred at the headquarters of the CDC.
The election then was between ex-President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf with now President Joseph Boakai as Vice Presidential candidate and Cllr. Winston Tubman as the standard-bearer for the CDC while George Weah was the vice standard bearer standard on the CDC ticket.
The CDC spokesman at the time, George Solo, accused the Liberia National Police of using live ammunition against unarmed CDC supporters who had gathered in front of their party's headquarters to attend what the party called a vigil for the preservation of democracy in Liberia.
"...the ERU guys were behind us firing, and I'm talking about live rounds, and they followed us into the party headquarters and continued to shoot at the crowd with live ammunition," he said at the time.
Solo said there were at least two confirmed fatalities.
The police were disbursing the crowd in an enforcement of electoral law forbidding political gathering 24 hours prior to the election.
Two people were confirmed killed, but members of the CDC claimed the fatalities were more than two, alleging that some bodies were swindled away.
"We have two bodies, but we also have four, five, six claims of death. We've got stories of people being shot on the beach and bodies taken and transported to who knows where," Solo said.
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Now, thirteen years down the line, the man whom the CDCians suspect of carrying out the shooting at the party headquarters has been re-appointed by Pres. Boakai to the position he held when the mayhem took place.
On Tuesday, President Boakai named Atty. J. Nelson Freeman as Deputy Inspector General for Operations.
His appointment awakened criticism by top ranking members of the CDC including Acarous Gray who posted to Facebook: "President Boakai intentionally appointed a death squad killer of CDCians. November 7, 2011 Nelson Freeman shot and killed three CDCians and wounded several. This appointment is a repeat of November 7, 2011 when Boakai was Vice President."
While some commentors believe there should be a protest at the grounds of the Capitol Building against his confirmation by the Senate, others criticized Gray and the Weah-led government for doing nothing to bring Nelson to justice during their regime.
