Kakata – A community radio station in Margibi County has been attacked by Margibi County Labor Commissioner in what appeared to be an apparent retaliation to leaked audio of the station has been airing in which he is heard allegedly soliciting a bribe from a foreign businessman.
Report By Yawah Y. Jaivey in Kakata, Margibi County
At about 6:20 AM Monday morning, Mr. Roye Saturdaygar Brown, one of the two Labor Commissioners of Margibi County moved to the facility of Radio Margibi FM 103.9MHZ in Kakata, Margibi County minutes after the host of the station’s flagship program “Day Break Margibi” announced to the audience that he was going to play and discuss the Labor Commissioner’s alleged solicitation of bribe.
Nula Binda, the presenter of the show, said while starting the show he received a tip-off that the Labor Commissioner was en route to the station.
Binda said he hurriedly locked the front door of the station and went back to continue the show.
While presenting the show, Binda said he heard heavy banging on the door, prompting him to temporarily suspend the program.
He said Commissioner Brown forcibly opened the door, entered the broadcast studio and attacked him (Nula Binda) for playing his leaked audio on air.
“He was pushing the door threatening that when he gets me he was going to crush me for exposing his corrupt behavior which has been revealed in the leaked-audio. He was using threatening comments and insults on me and all of us at the station,” Binda explains.
Commissioner Brown, in a somewhat emotional and agitated mood, reportedly shut down the station’s generator, thus causing serious damage to some of the station broadcast equipment including two computers, studio monitor and relay system.
following the attack on the station, the manager hurriedly appeared on Classic FM, another community station in the county, to express his dismay.
But Commissioner Brown later phoned in on Classic FM and reiterated that he would physically attack the journalists rather than legal redress.
Meanwhile, station manager vowed that “no level of muzzling and threat will deter him and his staff from exposing corruption” of public officials.
Mr. Burgess added that it is the sole responsibility of journalists to muster the courage to expose corruption in all spectrums of society which has over the years destroyed and plunged Liberia into total backwardness.
He promised to officially notify the Association of Community Radios (ALICOR) the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) and the Margibi County Authorities about the attack. It can be recalled on Friday, February 1, 2019, Radio Margibi FM obtained and began airing a leaked-audioin which Labor Commissioner be allegedly heard speaking with a Bangladeshis businessman when one of his aides who is assigned in the county had gone to solicit bribe on the alleged instruction of Brown.