By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor in Monrovia
The Standard Bearer of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction or MRD, Sen. Prince Y. Johnson has accused some officers of the elite police unit, the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) shooting some miners in David Dean Town, Kokoya District in Bong County.
The Nimba County Senator Johnson told our Correspondent Saturday afternoon, August 5, that the town has a huge deposit of gold and a Turkish gold mining named MND operated by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her brother Kanley Johnson and Defense Minister Brownie Samukai has hold of the gold deposit in that part of the country.
Sen. Johnson said, the mining company uses explosives to break up the rocks and gold are collected like rocks and the dust are thrown in the nearby stream. According to him, when the residents of the town attempted to go to the stream of water to gather what he called “dirt for rewashing” them to earn their daily bread, the police attacked them with guns and arrested some of the locals.
The only decent structure in the area is a police station, well furnished, well painted and police officers assigned there are well taken care of, while the rest of the town residents is in total ruin, as though the place is a forgotten land.
He expressed fear that if nothing is done to resolve the hash and mal-treatment of the people by both the police and the mining company the situation could result to ‘something ugly’.
Senator Johnson also said that due to the residents’ continuous visitation of the company’s dumping area, Defense Minister Samukai through the police ordered the flogging and shooting at the peaceful citizens. He noted that some of the residents were brought to Monrovia and detained at the Barclay Training Center prison facilities for days.
Before releasing them, Johnson alleged, Samukai threatened the citizens to deal with them more drastically, if the were to go to the stream to scramble over gold dust. With anger, Johnson claimed, the residents returned to their town, where is no school, clinic, safe drinking water, good transport and the residents live in abject poverty while the God’s given natural resources being taken in chopper on a weekly basis.
Johnson told our Monrovia Correspondent that he has informed Bong County Senator Jewel Howard Taylor about the situation and the matter is expected to appear on the floor of the Liberian Senate’s plenary.
He noted that the Lands, Mines Minister Patrick Sendolo would be invited to explain about the company. He pointed out that as member of the Liberian Senate for some protracted period now, he couldn’t remember when concession agreement between the MND Company and the Liberian government was ever entered into.
He explained that it is frustrating and disappointing by the way Liberians are being treated at the gold mining by foreigners, who are reportedly enjoying the blessing of the president and her family and the Defense Minister.
When the Presidential Press Secretary was contacted via his private phone, his cell phone rang endlessly without response on several occasions. He did not return our Correspondent’s calls.
