Liberia ex-warlord heads home
2004-03-25 17:37
Lagos - Former Liberian warlord Yormie Johnson, who has been exiled in Nigeria since 1992, said on Thursday he will leave for his home country this weekend to prepare for Liberia's forthcoming democratic elections.
Johnson, whose forces captured and tortured to death former Liberian president Samuel Doe in 1990, said that he plans to contest next year's planned senatorial poll under the banner of The Liberian Action Party.
"I will be leaving for Liberia on Sunday for a visit to prepare the ground for senatorial elections and for the final return of my family to that country," Johnson said in a telephone interview.
"I have been invited home by the Liberian interim president Gyude Bryant, and the elders and traditional rulers of my iron ore-rich Nimba County constituency, to come home to contribute to the development of Liberia.
"I also want to seize the opportunity of the three-week visit to meet and thank the leadership of the peacekeeping force in Liberia. They are doing a very good job and I need to commend them. I will also thank officials of the United Nations for their efforts to bring peace back to my country," he said.
He plans to return to Nigeria after the visit in order to make preparations for to live permanently in Liberia, he said.
At the height of the Liberian civil war, Johnson, then an ally of Charles Taylor in the rebel National Patriotic Front of Liberia, broke away to form the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia.
The pair fell out, and while Taylor went on to force his way into power, Johnson was evacuated from the country by Nigerian peacekeepers in 1992.
Taylor has now also fled to Nigeria, skipping the country in August last year with a new rebel faction closing in on his embattled capital Monrovia.
Johnson played down talk that he might now try to snatch the top job himself, saying that under a UN and Ecowas-brokered peace deal, former warlords have been banned from contesting for the presidency in the next election.
"Besides, it is better to learn how to walk before attempting to run. My people in Nimba County want me to come and render them service first before I think of aspiring to a higher political height," he said.
On his relationship with the Liberian transitional government chairperson Gyude Bryant, he said: "He is a friend. He invited me home through his vice chairperson, and I am going home to honour that invitation."