Conduct Autopsy!…CSO Group Demands Government in 2 LRA Employees’ Death
By: Staff Writer
Liberia-October 8, 2020: A Civil Society Working Group in Liberia has strongly condemned the mystery behind the deaths of the two Liberia Revenue Authority senior staffs (Gifty Lama and Albert Peters) and the manner in which the Liberia National Police (LNP) is handling the situation the matter.
The group, in a release, mentioned that ranging from the crime scene up to the depositing of the bodies at the St. Moses Funeral home, Police failed to seclude the crime scene from the public, something they believe has undermined public confidence in the credibility of the police to get to the bottom of this matter.
It can be recalled that the Liberia National Police through its Inspector General Patrick Sudue on Monday, October 5, 2020 admitted to error by the Police on the crime scene though he did not mentioned the kind of errors that were commissioned by the Police.
Given the initial revelation by Sylvester Lama, husband of the deceased (Gifty Lama) who confirmed speaking with a strange voice on his wife’s phone before her passing, stated that there is a need to dick deeper into the matter.
A statement issued October 6, 2020 quoted the group as saying “We cannot continue to live in our own country anticipating the worse each day that passes. We cannot continue to live in insecurity, expecting to wake up almost every morning to the disgusting news of suspicious killings in the land. We do not deserve to die at the selfish desires of few hands who probably few threatened by the work we do, the stance we take or the principles we bear.”
Similarly, the group is demanding an autopsy of the bodies of those fallen Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) staff while appealing for the involvement of local and international partners, particularly the United States Government, to lead said a forensic process that will unearth the mystery behind these deaths that have sent shockwaves across the country.
A few years ago, on February 13, 2015, it was the suspicious death of Atty. Michael Allison whose remains were discovered on a beach, a few yards away from the then headquarters of the United Nations Mission in Liberia in Sinkor. Barely a year after, on January 31, 2016, it was the suspicious death of Harry Greaves, former LPRC’s Managing Director, whose body was found on the beach behind the Executive Mansion and nothing substantive came out of said investigations, thereby leaving citizens to live at the mercy of the killers who continue to roam the land undiscovered.
Additionally, under the present government, citizens witnessed the mysterious death of Matthew Innis of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), the much-heralded questionable death of former Representative Adolph Lawrence of Montserrado County district 15 with no outcome of a comprehensive Police report, and now the two Liberia Revenue Authority Staffers.
These, the group noted, are dangerous precedences that must stop now saying “Inasmuch as we may not want to quicken at uplifting the various assumptions by some Liberians surrounding the deaths of the two compatriots, it is crucially important to share their sentiments, considering the circumstances that attended their deaths as well as similar occurrences in recent past.”
The civil society group furthered that the Government of Liberia must go beyond just crying out like the ordinary citizens would do, and take practical actions aimed at combating suspicious killings which are becoming pervasive in Liberia. “If the government cannot act properly, we will act, whether properly or improperly, to preserve our lives from these senseless killers. We don’t deserve to die like chickens,” the group added.
