Monrovia – The Director General of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), Madam Emma Metieh Glassco has lavished praises on fishery inspectors that made their way for the first time into parades among military and paramilitary organizations during the 65th anniversary of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL).
On the 11th of each year, personnel of military and paramilitary organizations including the Armed Forces of Liberia, Liberia National Police, Liberia Immigration Service, National Scout Association, Drugs Enforcement Agency, and Liberia National Fire Service assemble at the Barclay Training Center in the capital, Monrovia, and other parts of the country in commemoration of Armed Forces Day, a day legislated by the legislature on February 11, 1957 in recognition of the vital role of the AFL in defending and protecting Liberia ‘s territorial integrity.
NaFAA’s division of Inspectorate, headed by its Chief Inspector, Mrs. Ellen Teewon, led a team of inspectors deployed across the nine coastal counties of Liberia to the BTC joining ranks with other state security apparatuses in forming part of parades.
In a brief chat minutes following their exceptional performance at the ceremony, Director General Glassco lauded the inspectors for forming part of the parades, while expressing excitement for the professional manner they conducted themselves. Madam Glassco, under whose watch NaFAA has witnessed tremendous transformation, said she envisages that the manpower of the inspectorate division will rise to one thousand in the next five years to enforce fishery regulations across the country.
“The Armed Forces of Liberia has duly recognized you as the legal authority to exercise your constitutional mandate relating to fisheries and its related matters. I’m very excited this morning”. “I’m very proud of you”.
“Very soon our officers will be minding all of our borders. “In the next five years, we’re hopeful of having more than one thousand inspectors deployed across Liberia”.
“This is just the beginning”, Madam Glassco said.
The NaFAA division of inspectorate was commissioned on 23, 2022 by Justice Minister and Attorney General Frank Musa Dean at ceremonies marking the official launch of Japanese donated YAMAHA engines in Buchanan. With paramilitary status, it’s under mandate to enforce regulations relating to the management of fisheries and the usage of the proper fishing gears in Liberia’s waters.
This year’s Armed Forces Day was celebrated under the theme ““Inter Agency Cooperation as a Panacea for Contemporary Security Challenges,”