Monrovia – There seems to be a sour relationship between and among senior officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP) and this feud is affecting effective operations at the LNP.
A recent program had to be cancelled due to poor attendance by senior officers, something Police Inspector General Patrick Sudue said was purposely done by those officers to undermine the service of the force under his watch.
The working of the police has been stalled according to sources all because of the ascendency of Col. Sudue to the helm of the LNP.
Our source further stated that many of the present officers oppose Sudue’s leadership, and are remaining loyal to the past administration of Col. Gregory Coleman, who is now in another service far from the security sector.
At a Press conference this week, Col. Sudue said that past administrations upon assuming power at the Police immediately brought in their “own people they wanted to work with.
“When I came in as I.G, I worked for almost two months I had the same people working with me who worked with the former Inspector General. They were dragging their feet when I gave instructions.”
He added that police visibility at the start of his regime was also opposed by loyalists of the past administration.
Col. Sudue said he had to rearrange those who weren’t working with him.
At the General Assembly of the Police, it was poorly attended as Col. Sadatu Reeves came and announced the cancellation, saying, “Due to some pressing engagements, we cannot continue this assembly.” Col. Reeves is the principal deputy of the LNP.
But Col. Sudue disclosed, “I remembered when we called for a general assembly it will surprise you to note that people called commanders telling them not to attend the assembly, and we had less than 150 officers so we had to cut the assembly off.”
Col Reeves, however, denied all the allegations and that the relationship between her boss and her is strained.
“I think there is no division between my boss and I and I will not speak to anything like that.”
Col. Sudue recalled another program which was poorly attended by officers. “Our UNPOL counterparts were leaving, we called on all officers to be there people didn’t show up because people told them not to show up.
“Whatever efforts we tried, people were behind the scenes trying to stall our efforts,” Col. Sudue.
When we called for deployment, no deployment because someone feel they have power over us. So it was getting out of hand, since I have the authority I decided to build a team,”
He continued: “When Gregory came, he changed everybody in the police including me. He changed every spectrum of this institution but it was never witch hunting.
“But Patrick reshuffled people, so it’s witch hunting. Now, if you look at the reshuffling I did, there are changes.”
Col. Sudue questioned those who are still loyal to his immediate past predecessor, Col. Coleman. “What is the problem in building a team than to have someone who was in the force before?”
He said, “Those in these positions are bonafide and qualified officers, who have the expertise, they are not loyal to anyone but the institution.”
“We didn’t go out to bring in new persons, everybody we gave positions to, worked with the past administration. The concern of the Liberian people is to get result and we are doing everything to get results.”
“We are young and it’s a new administration and we will do everything to fight crime,” Col. Sudue assured.
The Deputy Inspector General for Operation, Mr. Robert Budy, who replaced Col. Abraham Kromah vowed targeting crimes in the country.
Budy had previously been dismissed by ex-president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for alleged link to a 2013 human trafficking allegation.
Col. Budy, who worked at the Liberia Immigration Service for over five years, was not found liable after a probe was done by an investigation team.
“After carefully interviewing nine witnesses and reviewing several evidential documents from three security agencies of the government, the Presidential Committee chaired by Hon. Conmany B. Wesseh, cleared the within named individuals of any official misconduct linking them to human trafficking.”
When contacted on the internal wrangling, he told FPA that he was not too sure that the telephone call was from a reporter of FrontPage Africa so didn’t speak further.