-Piah, Jewel, Koffa Share Seat at Funeral of Catholic Priests
The spectacle of seeing the Government’s Minister of Information, Jerolinmek Mathew Piah, sharing a seat with major opposition figures, including former Speaker, Fonati Koffa and former Vice President during the CDC-led administration, Jewel Howard-Taylor, was one of the side attractions during the funeral mass of Rev. Fathers Alphonus B. Mombo and Roland G. Biah at the Sacred Heart Cathedral on Broad Street in Monrovia.
Minister Piah, a staunch Catholic and member of the ruling Unity Party, in a black African shirt, was seated on the right hand side of former Vice President Taylor, also in black, while former House Speaker, Koffa, in white, sat on the left hand side of Jewel.
They were seated together on the same bench not for any political reason, but to join other mourners, who had turned out in droves to pay their final respects to two falling Catholic Priests, whose deaths under mysterious circumstances, remain a topical issue not only amongst Catholics, but also amongst non-Catholics and other Liberians far and near.
The three may have not even noticed the stirs of other mourners, who recognized them as current and former government officials sharing a seat, a very rare spectacle because of the acrimony that characterizes Liberia’s body politics.
Some observers, who spoke to our reporter, said the three may have not decided on their own to share the same bench because apparently it was one of the seats set aside by authorities of the Church for current and former officials of the Liberian government.
Koffa, a stalwart of the main opposition, Congress for Democratic Change, CDC, doesn’t seem pleased with the current administration, particularly the Executive that he still thinks masterminded his ejection from the seat of speaker of the House of Representatives, a claim the Executive has repeatedly denied.
For former Vice president Taylor, whose National Patriotic Party joined the former ruling CDC Coalition during the 2023 presidential elections, she was on many occasions seen at many public events organized by the current administration. She was one of the few opposition figures that attended last year’s Independence Day celebrations in Monrovia.
Whatever the case was, at the Sacred Heart Cathedral, during the weekend, the sight of Information Minister Piah sharing a seat with two opposition figures, sent a positive message of peace and reconciliation following the 2023 acrimonious presidential elections.
