MONROVIA – What started as a trip to the 180th Convention of the Methodist Annual Conference in Gbarnga, Bong County resulted in a tragedy Sunday, killing two – Gabriel Wilson, who has been trumpeting the President’s horn since the reign of President William R. Tolbert and Victoria Wlue, a passenger in the vehicle carrying former Solicitor General, Micah Wilkins Wright.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
Victim Gabriel Wilson (Executive Horn)
Gabriel Wilson was popularly known as ‘Executive Horn’. Believed to be in his mid 60s, ‘Executive Horn’ brought uniqueness to the Liberian presidency. The traditional horn announced the arrival of the President in public gatherings. Depending on how it is blown, the horn signaled the President’s mood and it was also used to applaud the President when he speaks.
In an exclusive interview with FrontPageAfrica in 2017, Executive Horn said, “This horn has message, there is a way when I blow it, people from Maryland will know the mood of the occasion. If the president is speaking during a joyous occasion, my kinsmen will understand and when someone dies and I blow it, they will also understand it is a sorrowful period,” he told FrontPageAfrica.
He said none of his three sons were interested in taking after him, calling his craft ‘old fashioned’.
“They said it’s old fashioned yet, it is the old-fashioned job sending them to school and feeding them. Since my children do not want to learn the art, I am presently training a boy from my home to take after me,” he added.
Victim Victoria Wlue
Rev. Victoria G. Wlue was a passenger in the vehicle carrying former Solicitor General Wilkins Wright. She was an employee of the Ministry of Education serving as principal of Dusata public school in Paynesville. She was also a former teacher of the Firestone School System.
Tributes have been pouring in on her Facebook page since her demise.
C Wellington Morgan, a relative of the deceased posted to Facebook:
“Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord”…
Rest in perfect peace my dear sister, the late Rev. Victoria G. Wlue , (Mamie). We share one brother, your father’s son, and my mother’s son, Marcus Wlue. Because of him, you became my sister.
You met your untimely death on Sunday, January 10, when one of President Weah’s convoy cars collided with the vehicle in wish you were riding.
Death has physically separated You from us, but I know that you are alive with the Lord in glory. Sleep in peace my dear sister, until we meet again on that great getting up morning.
I know that you are in a better place and it is well with your soul.
Lovelymood Flowers also wrote on her Facebook wall:
O Thou in whose presence our souls take delight
On whom in afflictions we call
Our comfort by day and our song in the night
Our hope, our salvation, our all
We fought to denounce the terrible fact but it finally hit us hard
RIP Rev. Victoria G. Wlue
The AME Churches most especially Eliza Turner will miss you
The Survivors
A family source told FrontPage that Cllr. Micah Wilkins Wright that former Solicitor General was on his way to Ganta when the tragic accident occurred. Though the family source declined to comment on the severity of his injuries, sources at the Phebe Hospital told FrontPageAfrica that the former ECOWAS Court Judge sustained a laceration on his face, but he is in a stable condition.
Gabriel Mills, a long-time videographer of the Executive Mansion, suffered severe injuries and reportedly broke both legs in the accident. FrontPageAfrica has not been able to confirm whether both legs can be restored but he is undergoing treatment at the John. F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia.
However, President Weah has promptly responded to the critical condition of long-serving Executive Mansion Videographe by ordering that the badly injured staff of the Ministry of State for President Affairs be flown to Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, for further treatment.
Jerry Gaye, a reporter with Prime FM also broke a leg in the accident.
Others who sustained injuries from the fatal accident are Samuel Zohn – driver, Executive Mansion; Rueben Gongloe, Executive Mansion staff; Mohammed Kanneh, Executive Mansion staff, Joseph Sayon, ELBC, Isaac Freeman, videographer, LNTV and Godfrey Nana Badu of KMTV.
Phebe Couldn’t Hold Survivors
Meanwhile, an acute shortage of essential drugs at Phebe hospital, Bong County’s only referral hospital, Sunday brought misery to victims of an accident involving the presidential motorcade.
Doctors advised patients to seek alternative treatment away from the hospital.
“Their condition is very critical and we don’t have no drugs to address the situation,” a nurse, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
Marcus Wright, who sustained an injury during Sunday’s accident, said he was advised by a nurse who was attending to him to go to a clinic or pharmacy to buy a piece of nylon string for use in the treatment of the wound in his arm.
“You can’t have a centrally-located hospital like Phebe and there are no drugs,” he said.
Phebe Hospital Medical Director, Dr. Jefferson Sayblay, said the victims’ conditions were critical for the hospital to handle, especially in the absence of drugs to respond to emergency cases of such.
“This is a classic example of the problem Phebe faces as a hospital,” Dr. Sayblay said. “There is not a pain killer here. We hope the government will see the need to improve the hospital.”
Selma Lomax Contributed to this story