15/12/2023
Office of Hon. Erol Madison Gwion, Sr., Electoral District #1, Grand Gedeh County
Office Cell: +231-888-765-593; 770044779
Email: [email protected]
FAM-OFFI/D-1/GGCO/JPS-01/12-‘23/RL
JOINT PRESS STATEMENT DELIVERED BY THE FAMILY AND THE OFFICE OF THE LATE HONORABLE EROL MADISON GWION, SR. ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2023 CALLING FOR THE UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE OF CERTAIN PERSONS JAILED IN ZWEDRU IN THE WAKE OF OUR LOSS
Members of the press:
We welcome you to the residence of the late Honorable Erol Madison Gwion whose untimely demise on Monday, December 4, 2023 at the Mobile Doctor’s Ghana Ltd Hospital in
Accra, Ghana, can only be described as extremely painful and life-shattering.
As the winner of the November 16, 2021 by-election in District 1, Grand Gedeh County, Hon. Gwion was overwhelmingly reelected on October 10, 2023 to serve a full six-year term in the upcoming 55th Legislature of the Liberia. Unfortunately, he could not succeed after a long-drawn-out illness that followed these popular victories mixed with threats on his life, including physical attacks on his person and attacks of other sorts by a few nonprogressive elements in our society.
Now as the late Hon. Gwion’s family, Office, constituency, Grand Gedeh County, Liberia and the world mourns his death, we wish to point out a continuous insensitive act being carried out by Mr. Zoe Emmanuel Pennue against the People of Grand Gedeh – the very people he claims to represent. Upon hearing of the sad news relating to the Right Honorable Gwion, ordinary people took to the streets of Zwedru in apparent anger and we learned of violence scenes thereof. We, the family and the Office of the fallen hero state categorically that we do not support any act of violence, and have therefore been urging for calm as we work towards Hon. Gwion’s final home-going befitting of the Statesman that he was.
However, members of the press:
While we are respecters of the law, we find it despicable that in the face of our grief and despondency over the passing of the man we loved so dearly, Mr. Zoe Pennue has proven to be insensitive and arrogant by not allowing the fallen Lawmaker to take his final rest before filing lawsuits against the people who gave him the power that he enjoys today. We strongly believe that Mr. Pennue’s move to have Grand Gedeans incarcerated without due process, nor valid proof of crime, is to distract the family of Hon. Gwion and disrupt our period of mourning.
Consequently, we see his action as a gross lack of empathy, as even further attack on the family, and demonstration of a semblance of his popularly alleged complicity.
We demand that those Grand Gedeans arrested and jailed with bogus charges, on the orders of Mr. Pennue be released unconditionally! We are calling on the Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Justice, to do all it can to ensure that calm returns to, and reigns in Zwedru City and the entire County – and one such thing to do, is to set free those Grand Gedeans incarcerated for whatever unproven reasons they have been ordered jailed for, in the wake of Hon. Gwion’s death.
We also want to thank all those advocating for the release of our people in jail. We reassure you that we stand with you in this effort. At the same time, we urge all Grand Gedeans to remain non-violent during these events and at all times.
Thank you, members of the press.
