PHOTO: Ojubah Kollie speaks out
By Moses M. Tokpah, mosesmtokpah@gmail.com
+231777130958/+231886476114
KAKATA, Liberia- A disadvantaged youth in Kakata City, Margibi County, Ojubah Kollie is calling for the prosecution of dealers of narcotic substances, as drugs trafficking and abuse has gone on the rise in Liberia.
Mr. Kollie made the call at a one-day Stakeholders Institutional alleviating meeting organized by the Margibi County Administration, in collaboration with the County Security Council held over the weekend at the Philadelphia Church here.
His call came weeks after the plenary of the House of Representatives passed a revised drugs law and forwarded it to the Liberian Senate for onward deliberations and concurrence.
The proposed ACT amends chapter 14 of the New Panel Law of Liberia under the title “offense involving danger to the person “by adding thereto sub-chapter (E) under the title “controlled drug and substance Act of 2014”.
Plenary’s decision followed a communication from Grand Bassa County District #5 Representative, Thomas Goshua in 2019 that has been lingering in committee room and a petition signed by over fifty (50) members of the House of Representatives.
When concurred with by the Liberian Senate, the amended law will provide penalties for drug possession or use, supply, trafficking, production, an alternative to incarceration, harm reduction, public health and human rights, confiscation of properties, among others, and will also reduce the number of disadvantage youths in the streets.
Making the case on behalf of disadvantaged youths in Liberia, Mr. Kollie said the only way they will deviate from smoking or taking in drugs is for government to take steps that will eradicate the sale of Narcotic substances.
He said there is a need for drug dealers to be arrested, jailed and persecuted stating that this is the only way those who are involved into taking drugs and substance abuse will desist.
Rise in drugs abuse is “a disgrace”
According to the disadvantaged Liberian youth, if others do not sell drugs, those who consume it will not have access to it.
“I am telling you reality you are sitting back there clapping your hands, in the night you are selling drugs, you know your uncle selling drugs; the only way we can get rid of drugs let every Margibian take a day from drugs seller to drugs seller to grab the root. Let’s cut the root of the tree, if the plum tree roots are been cut, the tree will not bear. Let’s grab them and jail them then which mean we will not see drugs to buy again because you have grab the perpetrators, they are already in jail them,” he recommended.
Kollie continued: “But you can’t harass me, what I got that I am a smoker? I am seeing it to buy it, you grab me and jail me you are looking for me, grab the seller; jail the seller then the buyer will not see it to buy it.”
According to this disadvantaged Liberian youth, Margibi is seen as a county where there is a rise in illicit drugs, something he described as “a disgrace” to him, thereby pleading with God for forgiveness.
Ojubah Kollie has however, regretted being a drugs addict.
He used the occasion to appeal to the leadership of Margibi and Liberia as well as the international community to help get drugs out of Liberia.