Monrovia – The families of WAEC-Liberia’s staff who died in the Niko Ivanka shipwreck have expressed disappointment in WAEC and the Government of Liberia for the loss of nine of their family members and called for the dismissal of the heads of WAEC, Maritime, and the National Port Authority (NPA).
By Francis G. Boayue, Intern
Reading a statement on behalf of the families, the spokesperson, Mr. Jelson E.S. Keamah said since the incident they have observed with sadness the government of Liberia is not taking it seriously.
“We have observed with grieve concern that the national government has not made any relevance of this disaster or made a major declaration on it,” the family said.
“The government has not told us how long the investigations around the incident is going to last or when do we hope to receive the bodies of their missing relatives. We hold WAEC, Maritime, and NPA responsible for the death of our loved ones.”
According to the families, since the incident occurred, nobody has told them how their loved ones got on that banned cargo boat, while the key entities responsible for the disaster are smoothly operating with no one being held liable.
They added: “We have observed that WAEC is planning or carrying out secret replacement of our loved ones. The WAEC and the MOE are planning on conducting the examination by August 10-15 for Third and 6th Graders for which our loved ones were sacrificed. The management and owner of Niko Ivanka that caused the disaster are freely moving about their normal activities and our loved ones are in the funeral home dead.”
In their statement, they called for a speedy investigation with a specific time not beyond August 10, 2021, with findings published showing entities and persons responsible for specific recommended actions.
They called for an immediate arrest of the shipowner and jailing while the investigation is ongoing or concluded, and demand the bodies of all the WAEC Staff living or dead be turned over to them.
“We demand the immediate recusal or dismissal of NPA, WAEC and Maritime Bosses that they should submit to the investigation for a speedy and fair investigation. We demand the government to stop WAEC or put an immediate halt to the secret recruitment of our loved ones’ positions at WAEC until after their burial.
That the government put a hold on the administration of the WAEC test until our loved ones are lay to rest,” the group requested.
The group has threatened to stage a protest if the government fails to adhere to their requests within five days.
They called on President George Weah, the National Legislature, Foreign embassies, UN, ECOWAS, MRU, IMO Carter Center, WAEC International, Council of Churches, Civil societies, Educational stakeholders and all Humanitarian organizations to help them seek justice on behalf of the victims.