Gbarnga, BONG County – Police in the City of Gbarnga in Central Liberia have raided several ‘ghettos and criminal hideouts’ with a number of suspected persons rounded up.
According to the commander of the Crime Services Division of the Bong County Police Detachment, Inspector John Kelenso Flomo, the Police instituted the measure due to reports of armed robbery in the city in recent days.
Inspector Flomo told the Liberia News Agency that the Detachment was assisted by the Police Support Unit (PSU) assigned at the Gbarnga Regional Justice and Security Hub and the UNMIL counterparts to implement the raid.
“Police will only be successful in operations like this if community members are eager to assist the Police by providing information on criminals and their hideouts” Inspector emphasized.
The CSD commander Flomo did not say the total number of suspected armed robbers rounded up i the raid.
He lamented that his detachment has instituted a number of strategies to deal with the growing wave of criminal activities in the city but reminded residents to support the Police by supplying it information about the criminals and their dens.
The local CSD commander said the exercise will be extended to communities like SKT and Palala that are said to be infested with hardened criminals.
In November and December 2016 alleged armed robbers attacked quite a number of communities in Gbarnga, leaving some community dwellers injured, while making away with several valuable items as well as cash.
Communities that were highly hit by the armed robbers include Plum Valley, Bassa Community, Baltimore Boulevard and the Lelekpayea Community.
On early Tuesday morning July 15, 2014 the lifeless body of a fifteen-year-old boy, who family members identified as Lamin Jarkatay, was discovered in the warehouse of a garage on the Baltimore Boulevard with a single barrel bullet wound in his chest.
A resident of Lelekpayea Community in Gbarnga, Emmanuel Duah, told LINA that on Sunday morning January 1, armed robbers entered their home and put the tenants at gun point and took away their personal effects and other valuables.
Duah said the robbers were brandishing single barrel pistol guns to execute their operations.
This reporter was not allowed to talk to any of the suspected armed robbers as he was told by Police that they (‘criminals’) were undergoing preliminary investigation.
Some residents of Gbarnga, who spoke to the Liberia News Agency, described the situation as worrisome and called on the Liberian Police and the Police Support Unit assigned at the Gbarnga Regional Justice and Security Hub to increase their patrol, especially at night.
Philip T. Singbah, LINA Bong County Correspondent