By Our Correspondent in Monrovia
Grand Kru County Representative, Numene Bartekwa is in the midst of controversy over the mysterious disappearance of a 62-year old woman, Tarwan Bellor in Barclayville. Rep. Bartekwa is accused of having a hand in the disappearance of the old woman.
But the lawmaker has denied he has anything to do with the disappearance of the old lady, although he has confirmed that ritualism activities are prevalent in the Grand Kru County. The locals don’t seem to believe him and recently a crowd of residents of Barclayville staged a protest against him.
Angry crowd reportedly besieged the residence of the Grand County representative for his alleged involvement with the disappearance of the lady who is now presumed dead. But on returning to Monrovia, Rep. Bartekwa called a press conference and issued a denial.
Responding to reporters’ question, the lawmaker described Barclayville City as “the new ritual city” in Liberia, adding that the City is not exempt from county, like Maryland, where he claimed people died frequently and [human body] parts are extracted for ritualistic purposes.
According to him, besides the disappearance and death of old lady Bellor, “roughly over three persons” have died and the persons accused of killing them were arrested and “sent to prison for years”, but some of them, he claimed have been released by government due to lack of evidence for a prima facie case against them.
In an interview with reporters Friday, Representative Bartekwa said it was unfortunate for his political opponents to link him to the disappearance of the old woman because police investigative report released, copy of which is in the possession of our correspondent, did not accused him or has any report ever linked him to killing for ritual purposes.
Rep. Bartekwa’s assertion was in reaction to media report linking him to the death of old lady Bellor in December of 2016. But in sharp reaction to the media reports, Bartekwa said at no time his name had ever been mentioned in any issue of “gboyo” (the local parlance for ritualistic killers) activities.
Explaining how his residence was besieged by angry protesters, he said, when he returned from his district to Barclayville, he saw huge number women and youths at his residence protesting and demanding justice due for the disappearance of and of death of Tarwan Bellor.
He claimed the angry protesters did not besiege his residence alone, but also besieged all senior government officials’ residences. They also besieged the police station in the city.
Bartekwa claimed the crowd became angry when a photographer who was standing near him took pictures of the crowd. Adding, “The protesters were annoyed and angrily reacted by throwing stones at the photographer, and apparently it was at that point his eye got hit.”
“I was not stoned and rescued by the police. Here is the truth, there was an incidence in Barclayville, and I was not in Barclayville when the incidence took place. When I returned, I saw huge crowd at my residence with the aim to alert us about the mysterious disappearance of a lady. In the process, a photographer was standing by my side taking pictures of the angry crowd, and one of them reacted by throwing stones at him it was not me”.
“My people didn’t stone me or to hurt my eyes as spilled out by my political foes,” he said.
