“God Should Give Me One Day at a Time”

-Mother York at 85

Members of the Eliza Turner African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church last Thursday held a thanksgiving service in honor of Mother Louise C. Wilson York on her 85th birthday, a long time member of the Board of Trustees of the AME Church.
The program was observed in the edifice of the Eliza Turner AME Church on Camp Johnson road where friends of mother York, organizations that she belongs to and some members of her church showered statements of appreciation upon her.
Within the many statements of appreciation allotted to the 85 years old York, her friends, colleagues and fellow worshippers lauded her being an educationist, straight forward and passionate person and an encourager as well.
The honoree had served many positions as a professional person within the AME mission in Liberia. Some of the positions that she had held include President Women Missionary Society (WMS), President Stewardess Board, Member Pastor’s Aid, President Conference Branch and Episcopal District Pastor.
During her remarks, Mother York thanked the Eliza Turner AME Church for organizing such a program and said her motto through life was based on the gospel hymn “one day at a time.”
“You might know the history behind this song, but this has been my motto through life; that god should give me one day at a time because he knows what is best for me. I am not asking him what he has for me in the future, I can ask him that. But I only said to him –Lord what you have for me let me have it one day at a time. That have been my pray,” she said.
She further encouraged those in the congregation to develop or stick to a motto which would make them contended with whatever God gives them.
“God has a place for everybody on the globe, everybody he created he has a place. Yours is not mine, and mine is not yours. Learn to trust God and let him show you the way to take rather than trying to force your own way,” Mother York.
She thanked god for the four scores and five years she had lived and expressed how much love she harbored in her heart for her church.
In her closing statements, mother York urged everyone attending to take time in life and there is nothing to hurry for.
She received gifts from some members of the church including a purple gown from the International Gospel Translators (IGT) choir of the Eliza Turner AME Church.

Mother York

Bong Mines Camps to be Evicted

-Residents plead for compensation

Residents of the Bong Mines concession area over the week-end expressed grave concern about the coming of China-Union Mining Company to the area which would warrant the relocation of those who live within the camp houses which was built for workers of the German owned Bong Mining Company (BMC) the late 1970s.
In a telephone interview with Dr. Eugene Shannon, Minister of Lands, Mines, and Energy, he told the Daily Observer the area had been turned over to China-Union to carry out mining activities.
Minister Shannon further said all those living within the China-Union concession area had been given time to vacate the premises for the company to begin its operations.
He stated that those who legitimately own property backed by document(s) would be compensated based on the value of their properties and those who were just squatting would be given time to leave the area.
“In the concession agreement with China-Union, the property should be turned over to them. For those who owned legitimate properties in the area, their deeds will be brought forward and they will be rightly compensated. No one will be taken out without compensation if you own a property legitimately. And if you are just squatting, we will give you time to move,” he said.
Asked what would become of the BMC workers that are residing within the premises, Minister Shannon said the concession agreement with the Bong Mining Company had expired and if the government owes the workers anything, they should carry their grievances to the government.
“It is the responsibility of the government to access your pleas, your plights and address them properly,” he said.
However, according to some of the residents who had lived in the area since 1983, relocation would be a “big blow” to them because they have come to see the Camp houses as their homes.
Idris Nelson, a resident of camp Gotoria and a volunteer nurse at the Bong Mines Hospital, in an interview with this writer who visited the area last Friday, said he had heard of an eviction that would take place in the area.
“I have been hearing the rumor,” Mr. Nelson began, “that the government will evict us from the camps to create space for the China Union company that is coming to extract iron from here. But where will we go?”
Mr. Nelson, as a former worker of the Bong Mining Company (BMC), and his family have been living in the camp since 1983 when Bong Mines Concession was fully operational.
“I have lived here since 1983 with my family and we have nowhere else that we call a home. If the government says we should move, we will move. But I would like to appeal to the government to use its good offices to compensate us so that we can be able to relocate,” He said.
He further said those who live in the concession area were citizens of the country and hoped that the China-Union company that is going to the area would recruit those who are willing and able to work.
Also speaking with the Daily Observer, Mr. J. Randolph Parker, master of Camp Gbelkeh and a mechanic, who worked for the BMC for about 26 years, said some people from the Ministry of Land Mines and Energy had earlier gone to the area and asked him to take a census of the people that live in the Camp.
He added that they were then informed that the census was to be taken in order to help the government give them some compensation for renovations they had carried out on the houses within the camps.
“We have taken the census that the Ministry asked for, but we are yet to hear from them. The exact amount that will be given to us was not disclosed; all we can hope for is that the token should be enough to help us relocate,” Mr. Parker said.
“We cannot fight government,” Mr. Parker admitted, “but we are appealing to government to see reason to have us compensated.”

Woman, 25, Abducted, flogged and raped

Information gathered from the Township of West Point revealed that three residents of the Community on Sunday allegedly abducted a 25-year old woman for allegedly stealing US$20 belonging to the perpetrators.

Briefing Newsline a niece of the victim Sarah Dixon said her aunt was invited in Fatin Town, Community in West Point by one of her friends only identified as Winifred, while at Winifred Residence some security Personnel and raided a gang of drug addicts. She aid in this event, one of drugs addicts hid a US$20 in the sand near the beach, but when returned, he noticed that the money was allegedly taken away by an unknown person.


Sarah said according to her aunt, in search of the doer of the act, her friend Winifred told them that it was the victim who took the money from the sand and took away. As a result of this, the victim was adopted by these three guys and taken in an unknown room, tortured by these men.

According the victim niece, the victim hair on her private part was burnt, and other parts of the on

The girl also revealed that her aunt told her that the three, during the torture had sexual intercourse with her, throughout that night she was with them and dropped her in an empty room and departed the scene.

The victim friend Winifred did not report the case until after these men completed their task.

In the presence of Winifred, one of the perpetrators were arrested by officers of the Liberian National Police and taken place under their custody pending investigation.

When contacted as to whether Oscar as he is identified, police denied ever arresting any one in connection to such a case, and has no one by the name of Oscar in their possession .

But while in the premises of the Police Depot in West Point, it was observed that a well –built man dark in complexion in the cell of the of the depot responded to a called made by our reporter calling him Oscar.

Though according to family sources, Oscar was arrested Monday morning taken at the depot for investigation.

our reporter was also informed that the victim was taken at the Redemption Hospital for Treatment, but to our greatest surprise the nurses told the news man that they have not gotten any case as such at the hospital.

But our reporter observed that something resembles compromise was about to go on at the police depot, in West Point.

The reporter was told by some residents of west Point that there are a lot of cases that are compromised in that township with the victim been left without treatment.

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.

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.