By By: The People Newspaper
Monrovia, Liberia — The Liberia National Students’ Union (LINSU) has strongly condemned what it calls the “barbaric and unlawful” arrest of more than eight students of the University of Liberia (UL) by officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP).
According to LINSU, the arrests were carried out under the cover of darkness in a “shameful manhunt” targeting students who had earlier staged a peaceful protest over the prolonged closure of the university. The group described the police action as a dangerous assault on democracy under the leadership of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai.
In a blistering statement issued Thursday, LINSU stressed that the right to protest is protected under Liberia’s Constitution. “Peaceful protest is not a crime. It is a constitutional right, a democratic entitlement, and a noble tradition of resistance,” the statement read.
The student body accused the LNP of transforming itself into an “instrument of intimidation, a predator unleashed against its own people,” adding that the arrests amounted to “a dagger thrust into the very heart of democracy.”
LINSU emphasized that students are not criminals but victims of neglect and systemic failure at the University of Liberia. The group pointed to crumbling infrastructure, unpaid faculty, and overcrowded classrooms as the real crisis plaguing the country’s flagship university.
“Arresting students will not repair laboratories. Handcuffing them will not settle salary arrears. Dragging young people to prison cells will not reopen the gates of the university,” the statement declared.
The union demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all detained students within 48 hours, warning that failure to do so could trigger a wave of resistance across the student movement and civil society.
“LINSU warns, in the clearest possible terms, that this aggression will not go unanswered. The government must immediately and unconditionally release the students unduly in police custody,”* the statement continued.
Beyond condemning police actions, LINSU also called on UL authorities to swiftly resolve their ongoing labor dispute with the University of Liberia Faculty Association (ULFA) to ensure the reopening of school.
The union criticized the administration for failing to prioritize dialogue and engagement, warning that empowering other factions on campus to engage in “subversive propaganda” would only “deepen the contradictions, radicalize the campus, and ignite resistance far greater than the state imagines it can contain.”
LINSU invoked Liberia’s long history of student activism, warning that intimidation would not silence their movement. “The student movement has outlived dictatorships, military juntas, and pseudo-democratic regimes. We have faced bullets, tear gas, imprisonment, and death — and yet we have not been broken. We will not be broken now,”* the union affirmed.
The statement ended with a stern caution: “If the government believes that manhunts and midnight arrests will break the spirit of Liberian students, it has learned nothing from history. To attack students is to attack the future of the nation itself.”
LINSU’s 48-hour ultimatum sets the stage for potential confrontations if the government and police fail to comply. Civil society groups, faculty, and students are now being rallied to stand in solidarity against what the student body describes as “a rising tide of repression.”
