Published: September 2, 2026
MONROVIA — Information Minister Jerolinmek M. Piah has sharply rebuked Bong County District #3 Representative Marvin Cole over comments linking the prosecution of former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor to her Kpelleh ethnicity, warning that such rhetoric risks fueling tribal divisions and violence.
By Roseline Gbessagee
Cole reportedly suggested that Howard-Taylor’s prosecution amounted to an attack on the Kpelleh people of Bong County and that residents could have responded violently if a similar situation had occurred elsewhere.
Speaking Tuesday, Sept. 1, during the Ministry of Information’s regular press briefing, Piah described Cole’s comments as “reckless” and “irresponsible,” insisting that Howard-Taylor’s legal proceedings are personal and should not be portrayed as a case against Bong County or the Kpelleh people.
“We should also work around the clock to demonstrate that the country is peaceful and that the people of the nation are okay. We are under an obligation to refrain from promoting acts of tribalism, regionalizing issues, or, to say the least, inciting people into violence,” Piah said.
“This sitting government official, a lawmaker, cannot attempt to stigmatize an entire county and tribe as people who are entrenched in violence. That is reckless and irresponsible, and it is not what is expected of anybody in the public space,” he added.
According to Piah, public officials have a responsibility to avoid statements that could inflame ethnic, regional or political tensions, particularly given Liberia’s history of civil conflict.
He stressed that Howard-Taylor is undergoing a legal process as an individual and that neither Bong County nor the Kpelleh ethnic group has been accused of committing any crime.
Piah drew a comparison with the prosecution of a former chief justice from Maryland County, arguing that her case was never characterized as an attack on Maryland County or the Grebo people.
“Just yesterday, a former Chief Justice who comes from Maryland was said to have murdered her own daughter. She went through the legal process. She was in the same Salt Beach, where Jewel is. She was not interpreted as a prosecution of the people of Maryland. It was not considered an attack on the Grebo people,” Piah said.
“These reckless and irresponsible conducts on the part of public officials must stop now,” he added.
The Information Minister also invoked Liberia’s 14-year civil conflict, during which an estimated 250,000 people were killed, warning against rhetoric that could revive the ethnic divisions associated with the war.
“That war had a semblance of tribalism. Many innocent people were slaughtered. Their only crime was that they belonged to a particular tribe,” Piah said.
“We want to urge that official to stop being recklessly irresponsible,” he continued. “The situation with Madam Taylor, it is not an attack on Bong County. It is not an attack on the Kpelleh people.”
Piah noted that many Liberians have faced legal proceedings and that dozens of people are being held at detention facilities because they are accused of being in conflict with the law, not because of their ethnicity or county of origin.
He maintained that Howard-Taylor’s case should similarly be allowed to proceed through the courts without being framed along tribal or regional lines, urging public officials to avoid rhetoric that could deepen divisions in the country.
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