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MONROVIA — Bong County District #5 Representative, Eugene Kollie, has expressed fear over the presence of over 700 Liberians recently repatriated from Ghana following reports by the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) that about 80 per cent of the returnees are drug addicts.
By Selma Lomax, [email protected]
Last weekend, 762 Liberians were brought back home by the LRRRC following the demolition of the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana by the Traditional Council of Gomoa District.
The Buduburam Refugee Camp has been home to over four thousand Liberians who fled the Liberian civil war in 1990.
The 750 returnees are currently residing at a transit center constructed by the Liberian government through the LRRRC in Sergeant Kollie Town, Suakoko, Bong County.
Following a rigorous tracing and screening exercise, LRRRC Executive Director, Patrick Worzie informed the public that the returnees were drug addicts, thus causing panic and fear in the community and the county at large.
He added: “We are now doing the awareness, we will do their test, those who are free will be integrated, and we will work with the task force to place them into rehab homes.”
He also announced that on board were 15 “crazy individuals”, adding that his team will put them into rehab homes. “There are 183 children under the age of five. We have about 16 pregnant women on board. So, we are not counting on the government alone but also our development partners to come and help us,” he said.
According to the LRRRC boss, his team will be going to Ghana to bring in the second batch of refugees from the Buduburam Refugees Camp next month.
Worzie added: “Holding everything constant, by the 31st of May the second batch will pick up from Ghana so we can live up to our agreement that the 1539 Liberians will all move away from that camp and come back home.”
As a representative of the district in which the returnees are temporarily staying, Hon. Kollie took to his Facebook page to express serious concerns and panic over what he described as a “scaring statistics” by the LRRRC of the returnees.
Rep. Kollie noted that the LRRRC statistics calls for panic and only indicates that the community hosting the returnees and the district at large is at a “very” high risk.
Kollie went on to criticize negotiations that brought the returnees to his District – a process which he, as a lawmaker of the District didn’t participate in.
The lawmaker also criticized the chairman of the Bong Legislative Caucus, Sen. Prince Moye, over his “unilateral handling” of the county’s affairs in gross disregard of his colleagues’ inputs.
Rep. Kollie informed the public that he was not informed and didn’t participate in any negotiation that led to the construction of the transit center in his district by the government of Liberia through the LRRRC.
Kollie went on to register his disappointment in Senator Moye and all those who formed part of the process that brought the returnees to the district without any notice to his office as the people’s leader.