PHOTO: Police IG Patrick Sudue-Why is he refusing to show up?
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- Liberia’s Police Inspector General, Patrick Sudue has been ordered arrested by Judge Nancy Sammy of the sixth Judicial Civil Law court here in the capital.
The Judge’s order is based on a complaint filed to the court by the independent National Commission on Human Rights headed by Cllr. P. Dumpster Brown, who alleged that the IG had failed to appear before the Commission whose objective was to establish the scale, magnitude and gravity of the situation as it relates to human rights violations.
In the complaint filed to the court, the INCHR stated that the IG had refused to honor their invite to come before it in order to provide information about their role played on the violence that took place on July 26 near the US embassy, in order to advise the government and stakeholders but the police IG had refused.
According to the INCHR, it is their role as a human rights organization backed by Article 6 (I) of the Liberian constitution which gives the commission the right to investigate into complaints, and it is also clothed with the powers to subpoenaed those accused of human rights violations, based upon complaints from aggrieved parties.
Recently, some members of the National police were suspended for their failure to control the violence that erupted on July 26, that led to a member of the Student Unification Party (SUP) being tortured, and brutally beaten. The group at the center of the violence was the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) Council of Patriots (COP).
The SUP member, according to reports sustained injuries and has been in critical condition since the incident.
However, in the Police response to the INCHR invite noted that the Liberia National Police is the highest established security institution by law thus they have an internal disciplinary review board responsible to investigate.
He furthered that the Professional Standards Department is responsible to discipline based on proceedings within their jurisdiction.
“We cannot subject our officers to any form of investigation by the independent National Commission on Human Rights as requested.”
The Liberia National Police has however, arrested and charged those believed to be members of the CDC COP who reportedly staged the violent assault that took place during the July 26 independence day.