Monrovia – Amid the increasing rate of criminal activities being reported across the country, with some of the alleged perpetrators attributing the acts to high unemployment, the Liberia National Police has released crimes report in January, with theft of property topping the list.
Report by Kennedy L. Yangian [email protected]
In January 2016 alone the Police preliminary crimes report released Wednesday indicates that out of the 1, 249 crimes allegedly committed for the period indicated, 376 were theft of property followed by simple assault, amounting 245 cases as well as disorderly conduct, which also amounted to 89.
Third was aggravated assault, 112. Rape, burglary, drug possession and criminal mischief were also reported but at a low rate.
The lowest crimes reported so far report in the category of one case each were counterfeiting, loitering, physical obstruction, recklessly endangering another life.
There have been two cases of rape and gang rape reported by the Police in the January 2016 report though there are indications from the Police of other reports of crimes allegedly committed from January up to current are to be released in due course.
Also in the report nine murder cases were reported but the same report felt short to state at which locations were these crimes allegedly reported.
The January 2016 crime report is been released amid mounting calls from several quarters of the country, especially among women and pressure groups, to castrate or even execute rape convicts.
FrontPageAfrica reported earlier this week that a meeting of chiefs and traditional leaders over the weekend in the central city of Gbarnga in Bong County discussed the way forward in the fight against sexual and gender-based violence across the country.
At the three day-meeting organized by the Carter Center, the chiefs and traditional leaders adopted a resolution where they called for the passage of the domestic violence bill currently before the National Legislature and the repeal of the law against sodomy to be replaced by harsher punishment for would-be perpetrators.
The chiefs and traditional leaders’ resolution is being made even though rape is a non-bailable offence, enacted in law by the National Legislature since 2009.
Since rape became a non-bailable offence in the country in 2009, according to a latest report gathered from the Public Defense Office responsible to representing indigent defendants, there are over 270 defendants languishing behind bars at the Monrovia Central without trial for rape.
But the Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Division at the Ministry of Justice says the slow pace of prosecution of rape cases have been blamed on the availability of witnesses to come out and testify in most rape cases reported to the division.
“One of the reasons that rape cases are delayed to be moved to trial is that most of the witnesses are afraid to come to court for fear of reprisal from relatives of some of the accused,” a source from the sexual based violence who begged for anonymity said.