By Pewu Y. Sumo
MONROVIA, LIBERIA — UL-based student political movement, the Vanguard Student Unification Party (SUP), on Tuesday, July 7, issued a strong statement demanding sweeping government accountability, including the dismissal of the Inspector General of Police and a full international investigation into the $19.2 million cocaine bust, highlighting the alleged involvement of the Vice President.
The party through its Chairman Odecious Mulbah officially endorsed a looming nationwide protest, positioning itself at the forefront of mounting public frustration over economic stagnation and state corruption.
SUP Backs STAND’s July 17 “Lead or Leave” Protest
In a direct challenge to the administration of President Joseph Boakai, SUP threw its full weight behind the upcoming July 17 nationwide protest organized by the Solidarity and Trust for a New Day (STAND), a civil society group led by Mr. Mulbah K. Morlu, Jr.
The student leadership cited a failing economy, high unemployment, structural neglect, and skyrocketing prices for basic goods as the driving forces behind their endorsement. SUP leadership stated that the student body’s struggles are directly linked to the broader financial hardships facing ordinary Liberian families.
“The Boakai-Koung government has abandoned its constitutional mandate… keeping the people pinned down in the cesspit of systemic poverty and structural neglect,” the party’s statement read, promising that students would march alongside citizens to demand economic justice.
Call for International Drug Probe Into Vice President Koung
The most politically charged demand in the statement targets Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung. SUP called on the Vice President to voluntarily strip himself of political immunity and submit to an unrestricted, independent investigation led by international forensic experts and regional security bodies.
The demand follows public scrutiny regarding photographs and alleged interactions between the Vice President and individuals linked to transnational narcotics trafficking. While acknowledging that these images do not inherently prove legal guilt, SUP emphasized that they cast a dark cloud over the second-highest office in the country. Though the Vice President has since distance himself from any personal connection with the individual in the reported photograph.
Demand for Dismissal of Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman
SUP concluded its statement by demanding the immediate termination of Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman. The party flatly rejected a recent police report investigating the high-profile US$19.2 million cocaine seizure at Roberts International Airport (RIA), labeling the document incomplete and compromised.
The student movement highlighted several critical gaps in the police investigation, including unexplained delays: a 48-hour gap in securing the suspicious cargo after red flags were first raised, missing details: a total lack of transparency regarding financial and digital evidence and state actor omissions: the report charges five suspects (four of whom remain at large) but fails to name any airport staff, security personnel, or public officials who may have facilitated a shipment of that scale.
SUP argued that a transnational drug operation of this magnitude could not occur without the collusion of state actors, declaring the current police leadership unfit to restore public trust in the rule of law.
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