Monrovia – Mixed reactions have ensued among Liberians over the controversial autopsy and investigative reports released by the Government of Liberia (GOL), through Justice Minister-Counselor Frank Musa Dean, on the causes of deaths of four Liberian auditors who died under mysterious circumstances one after the other in the country.
It can be recalled that on Thursday, October 2, 2020, the lifeless bodies of the Assistant Commissioner for Internal Audit and acting Manager for Tax Payers of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) were found in a vehicle on Broad Street in Monrovia during the early morning hours.
Two days later, another auditor from the LRA, Mr. George Fahnboto, reportedly died in a vehicle accident around 72nd Paynesville, outside Monrovia.
On Saturday, October 10, the Director of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), Emmanuel Barten Nyeswa was also found dead in his compound along the 72nd Boulevard, outside Monrovia at 2AM.
Following the mysterious deaths of the Liberian auditors, the government initiated the conduct of autopsies on the remains of the victims and released the findings to the public on Tuesday, November 24.
In the reports, the government claimed that Mr. Peters and Mrs. Lama both died as a result of inhaling Carbon Monoxide from gasoline/hydrocarbon fumes and fumes from defective car exhaust system in the floor of the car.
The autopsies were conducted and its findings concluded by Dr. Benedict B. Kolee and Dr. Zoebon B. Kpadeh , who are employees of the Ministry of Health and the John F. Kennedy Medical Hospital respectively.
“If the autopsy report was anything to believe that the two, Lama and Peters died of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon, why didn’t same affect the driver who drove the car from the crime scene”.
T. Benjamin Myers
They were both hired by government to conduct the autopsies on the remains of the victims.
The police investigative report quoted an unidentified Parking Attendant as claiming that the two individuals were sitting in the vehicle which was overheating; the engine and the air-conditioner were on, with the windows covered with steam.
The report maintained that the Parking Attendant further indicated that he tried to collect the parking fee from Albert Peters, but Albert Peters told him to close his car door.
As for Mr. Nyeswa, the autopsy report released by government claimed that he died of massive hemorrhage; multiple bony and soft tissue injuries and blunt injuries consistent with fall from height. The Pathologist recommended that Nyeswa’s death would require further police detective investigation to determine if his death was accidental, homicide or suicide.
Another employee of the LRA, Mr. George Fahnbutu, the pathologist concluded that, he sustained injuries to his head, chest and abdomen. The cause of his death has been attributed to right frontal cerebral contusion and disruption of brain, with haemorrhages; right frontal complex depressed comminuted fracture; vehicle in head collision and side impact with house; and road traffic accident.
But since the report was released by the government, citizens have been engaged into claims and counter claims over the causes of deaths of the four Liberian professionals.
Some of the citizens believed that the reports released were “marred by fraud and a cover up by government to shield the alleged killers and safe it faces for being unable to arrest the perpetrators” of the brutal “killing” of the auditors.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with FrontPageAfrica on Thursday, some of the citizens rejected the autopsy and investigative reports released on Gifty and Albert on grounds that it is “impossible” for two full-grown up individuals to be seating in an alleged “overheating vehicle” for a prolong period of time, even though they were notified by the “Parking Attendant” that was mentioned in the report released by the police.
They believed that the admittance of the “Parking Attendant” to the air condition being fully on when he approached Mr. Peters in the vehicle makes it very hard or difficult to believe that the vehicle was overheating while the duo was seated at the back seat.
The former Youth League Chair of the Alternative National Congress, T. Benjamin Myers termed as “disastrous” the reports released by the government on the deaths of the auditors.
According to him, the release of both the autopsy and investigative reports raises more questions than answers.
“Again, the ineptitude and unprofessionalism of the LNP have been magnified beyond borders of reasoning. If the call log shows that Albert was in Barnesville Estate at 8:08 when he first communicated with Gifty that morning, how possible is it considering the distance and traffic congestion, that he would be parked on Broad Street by 9AM prompt?” Myers opined.
He also questioned the rationale behind the claim made by the police that Mr. Peters did not show any concern to disembark his vehicle (even though his eyes were red and his nostril was leaking), after he was approached by the Parking Attendant.
“What was the parking lot attendant doing at that hour when he supposed to knock out at 4pm. If the money was not his concern, what kept him on the scene until 7pm?”
Myers added: “If the autopsy report was anything to believe that the two, Lama and Peters died of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon, why didn’t same affect the driver who drove the car from the crime scene”.
Abel Jornkaitonor is a Liberian Nursing Instructor and also a student reading Public Health at the Cuttington University Graduate School.
According to him, the possibility of Gifty and Albert coming in contact with carbon monoxide while the doors of the vehicle were shut, remains a myth that cannot be understood.
“It is difficult to believe owing from the substance found positive. The pathologists need to establish how the guys came in contact with carbon monoxide and that of hydrocarbon,” Mr. Jornkaitonor averred.
“If we consider inhalation; how? Again, the parking attendant mentioned the vehicle had air-condition on and steam was seen on the glass. Was it that the AC wasn’t cooling? Was it that these adults planned to die of suffocation? There are lots of questions that need to be answered,” Jornkaitonor maintained.
Mulbah Nuwallie, a 40-year-old classroom teacher in Paynesville surmised that Mr. Peters might have shunned the parking lot attendant for attempting to disrupt his conversation.
“Maybe because the parking lot attendant went to the car to inform them and he told him to leave in a manner that was not pleasant and that made the attendant to become embarrass to ask him again and taught he would have come from the car,” Mr. Nuwallie stated.
He continued: “But my brother- car smoke, burning dirt and generator smoke are all not good for human, it’s quick to kill. Sometimes, when the Environmental Protection Agency is saying this, people can take it lightly. But by right, government should not be allowing cars with smoke to ply the street. Again, this is Liberia; people do things for political reasons”.
But Marie Snoti, a 32-year-old public health student at the University of Liberia, believes that the driver may have had stronger stimulus to contain the carbon monoxide than the two auditors.
Madam Snoti said “There is a possibility that at the time Mr. Peters open the vehicle, a good percentage of the carbon monoxide may have enter the vehicle and mix up with hydrocarbon gas from the air-condition, which may result to the death.
“Once carbon monoxide mix-up with the air-cool and the door is closed, that air will be tempered with and once it circulates in the same local and is inhaled, it has the ability to cause death if you do not have the ability to stand it in few hours. Underlining medical conditions could also be a factor. In fact, when the air-condition is on, it’s always good to keep drinking water, because it drains the water from the body.”
For his part, the Chairman of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) Solidarity Brigade, Byron Brown Jr., said the reports are “unbelievable” and it is marred with falsehood.”
Brown said Liberians and members of the deceased families must reject the report and hold the President George Manneh Weah administration responsible for the death of the auditors.
“The CPP Solidarity Brigade is also mandating President Weah and his cohorts to ask for forgiveness by lying prostrate on the graves of those auditors,” Brown noted.
He maintained that it remains difficult to believe that the two auditors died of hydrocarbon substance, when Mr. Peters’ trouser was found behind the B. W. Harris Episcopal School.
On the report of Mr. Emmanuel Nyeswa, Brown alleged that the former IAA boss could have been injected with a harmful substance, adding that, government is finding it difficult to deny such act.
He claimed that there is something (which he did not state) bigger than what government is trying to allegedly hide, for which the four auditors died one after another.
Speaking on OK Morning Rush Show on OK FM on Thursday, renowned Liberian lawyer Counselor Arthur Johnson questioned the decision taken by the government to release the autopsy reports to the public, instead of the two auditors who conducted the autopsies and concluded the reports.
He noted that further medical investigations need to be conducted because, there are stages of carbon monoxide which the reports failed to unearth.