MONROVIA – FrontPageAfrica has gathered from impeccable sources at the National Police Training Academy that the government of Liberia is training about 300 men and women under a quick impact project to be infused in various security apparatus including the Police Support Unit and Emergency Response Unit of the Liberia National Police, the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA) and the Executive Protection Service (EPS).
What is scary about these new recruits, FrontPageAfrica gathered, is that there were no background checks conducted.
But Police spokesman, Moses Carter, told FrontPageAfrica that he is unaware of any such training. He said, “The police academy is used for many things including the training of paramilitary units, but I am not aware of the training of any new training of police officers. I don’t have that information.”
According to the source, there is no paper trail of how those undergoing training were recruited and no confirmation as to whether they meet the minimum requirements to serve in any law enforcement agency.
“These new recruits undergoing training at the police academy would in fact begin receiving salaries at the end of this month. They will be infused into the ERU, the PSU, Immigration and the EPS,” the source said.
Information received further indicate that the rushed recruitment without proper vetting was intended to beef up the security sector ahead of the December 8 elections.
“The sad reality is that many officers are leaving the police, so, they have decided to bring their own people onboard. Some of them are barely high school graduates, but they are supporters are the ruling party. So, getting them over was easy and they have been promised full salary. Watch out, you’ll see a lot strange faces in the security in December like we saw during the June 7 protest,” the source added.
Police brutality has been a major problem with the police that citizens have been grappling with. While some attribute this to inadequate training, others believe it is due to the recruitments based on partisanship.
It can be recalled that in March this year, journalists rallied in the capital Monrovia and some newspapers darkened their homepages, in protest at alleged harassment they face from security forces.
The protest follows the death last month of Liberian broadcaster Zenu Koboi Miller, in circumstances which sparked outrage in the impoverished West African state.
Miller was allegedly manhandled by President George Weah’s bodyguards while covering a football tournament, and was admitted to hospital not long afterwards.
He died of hypertension and stroke, medical staff told Miller’s family, which has accepted the explanation.
However, some Liberian journalists believe he succumbed to injuries sustained during the bodyguard incident.
On that same day, FrontPageAfrica Sports reporter, Christopher C. Walker, was manhandled by officers of the Liberia National Police leading to the damage of his camera and mobile phone. He also sustained injuries.
Walker, for reasons unknown, was asked out of the stadium by the officers, and when he inquired why, they began to apply force and attempted dragging him out.
In May, family members of a businesswoman, Siah Johnson, who was allegedly flogged by officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP), just because she was not wearing a face mask, as protection against the COVID-19 Pandemic threatened to file a lawsuit of human rights violation against the police’s hierarchy.
In September, the Monrovia City government apologized for the brutality meted against journalist Bill Diggs who was flogged and tortured by officers of the Monrovia City Police only because he parked his car in the vicinity of the City Mayor’s compound.