Index

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Fire Victim Signals SOS

Monrovia - A victim of a fire incident which occurred on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 in the Bato Town community, Red Light, Paynesville, has signaled an SOS call to the public to help her raise funds to have a plastics surgery in order to enable her to return to school.
Ms. Bendu Armstrong, 26, graduate of the Class of 2007 of the Henry Wilmot Dennis High School, suffered a major facial burn which deformed her face beyond recognition during the fire.
Though she has a high ambition to get into college, Bendu and her parents believe that if she gets into any institution with such a scarred face, she would be a distraction to the other students and this would also cause her serious embarrassment.
Bendu’s mother, Mrs. Annie Armstrong, last Friday visited the Daily Observer office and said that how her daughter’s face got burnt “remains a mystical story.”
On the night of Wednesday, March 10, 2010, at about 12:30 a. m. their family had got through watching television and everybody when to bed.
Having gone to her room to sleep, Mrs. Armstrong said that her younger daughter came knocking on her door and saying that Bendu was getting burnt in the other room.
When she reached the room the mattress was on fire and they rushed Bendu to the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital where she received treatment for a month and was then transferred to the Mercy Ship at the Freeport of Monrovia.
Asked what caused the fire, the mother said she did not know, neither did even Bendu nor did the little child who alerted their mother have a clue as to the cause of the fire.
Meanwhile, the total cost of the Surgery is not known. Those kindhearted individuals wanting to assist Ms. Bendu in raising the funds toward having the surgery can contact the family on the following numbers: +231 (0) 668-2195 or +231 (0) 657-4339.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Additional Nine Electoral Districts for 2011

Monrovia- The controversy over the issue whether Liberia will be plunge into becoming an interim state after the Unity Party-led government in 2011, has now come to a halt with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf signing a Joint Resolution on the long awaited Threshold Bill submitted by the House of Legislature.
During the course of the last few months the 52nd National Legislature has been debating the passage of the Threshold Bill which sought to create about 23 additional seats within the House of Legislature.
It can be recorded that the population Threshold Bill was vetoed twice by the Liberian leader on financial and constitutional grounds.
President Sirleaf, in earlier reports, said signing earlier versions of the Bill would have meant diverting resources from other important priorities such as education, health and public works to accommodate the 23 additional legislators which the 40,000 threshold implied.
However, the Liberian leader, last Thursday, July 29, 2010, signed the Joint Resolution on the Threshold Bill which provives that nine additional seats will be added to the already existing sixty-four seats in the house of legislature.
According to Mr. Cyrus Wleh Badio, Press Secretary to the office of the President, the Joint Resolution which is cardinal to the holding of elections in 2011, has been forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be printed into hand bill for it to become a law.
Mr. Badio made this disclosure in a press briefing when he spoke to Executive Mansion reporters On Monday, August 02, 2010 at his office in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Capitol Hill.
“The issue of setting the Electoral Threshold has been dragging along for quite a while now. It may not be the best documents but an instrument that can guide us toward an important exercise to sustain our democracy.”
“The National Elections Commission can now begin the process leading to the holding of successful elections next year,” he said.
Mr. Badio added that president Sirleaf wishes to call on all citizens, especially those who may share different opinions on the compromise to look at the greater picture of the decision and lend their support for a smooth and transparent process.
In further elaborations, Mr. Badio averred the Joint Resolution states that the sixty-four electoral districts set up and used by the National Elections Commission (NEC) for the conduct of the 2005 Presidential and Legislative elections will remain constant.
“But for the purpose of the 2011 Presidential and Legislative elections,” Mr. Badio stressed, “each county shall retain the existing number of seats it has in the House of Representatives, except the counties of Grand Bassa, Lofa, Margibi, Monsterrado, Bong and Nimba.”
In accordance with the Joint Resolution, the NEC will create nine additional electoral constituencies in the aforesaid counties.
“Accordingly, nine additional electoral constituencies are hereby prescribed and established. The National Elections Commission shall reapportion such additional constituencies herein prescribed to the counties specifically named in the Joint Resolution, based on a fraction of the percentage contribution of the current seats each of the counties herein named above to their total number of seats in the House of Representatives,” Mr. Badio Said.

Faulty Breaks Leave NPA Staff Barely Dead


Monrovia -The Director of Public Affairs and Costumer Care, Jacob Walker, of the National Port Authority (NPA), last Saturday, August 7, 2010, was nearly killed in a motorcar accident as a result of faulty Breaks.
Mr. Walker was driving a maroon Nissan Primera vehicle, license plate number BC-1829, when he lost control while coming down Johnson Street toward the Gabriel Tucker Bridge and dump into the Slipway ditch which has not been barred.
According to Mr. Walker when he spoke with the Daily Observer, he had brought some journalist who had covered the M.V. Logus Hope one of the world’s largest Christian ship Ministries vessel at the NPA to town when he noticed that his car breaks had problem.
“I brought two journalists from Real TV and Truth FM to town and drop them off at the office on Ashmun Street. My breaks first give up in front of CWA and I knew it had a problem,” he said.
It was then that he decided to drive slowly to reached Clara Town and get the breaks fixed but coming down Johnson street hill he lost control and steered the car into the ditch along the road.
“I was driving slowly to get to Clara Town and have the breaks fixed. While coming down Johnson street hill, there were pedestrians and cars ahead of me and I had no breaks. I try to avoid running into them by trying to park against the sidewalks, but I when over it and into the ditch,” he averred.
Meanwhile, the M.V. Logus Hope vessel is expected to be in Liberia for about three weeks. Their mission is to minister the word of God and offer free dental care to some Liberians as well.