PHOTO: A Grand Kru man nursing bullet wound
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The Superintendent of Grand Kru County has denied the injuring of a resident of Pini-cess as a result of bullets fired by officers of the Police Emergency Respond Unit (ERU), who were dispersing residents resisting the arrest of the traditional herbalist in the area.
The officer were ordered to forcefully remove a traditional herbalist who was in the area purposely to investigate incidents of ritualistic killings in Grand Kru County, where President George Manneh Weah hails from.
Speaking in a mobile phone interview, Superintendent Doris Ylatun said the police never used live bullets but they used several teargas on the residents after they were planning to resist the arrest of Tamba Bondo, a traditional herbalist in Pini-cess.
Supt. Doris Ylatun
She explained that the teargas made the residents of Prinicess to disperse, with some of them running into the bushes, which caused some of them to sustain injuries all over their bodies.
The Grand Kru County Superintendent maintained that the man who people claimed that was allegedly shot on the leg is not true because he sustained wounds after he run into the bush as a result of the teargas.
According to her, on many occasions, the county authority and police detachment called purposely to inform him that his task in the county was over and as such it was the time for him to leave, but he ignored the calls.
“It was against on this back ground,” she went on that, “we ordered the police to remove but there were resistance from the residents on ground they want him to stay be in the town.”
“So the police officers opened fire by tear gassing them in order to forcefully remove Tamba Bondo from the area.”
In reaction, the Chairman of the Grand Kru County Youth Association, Elijah Wreh, has rejected the statement by the superintendent and identified the victim as Stephen Jlogba.
According to him, the victim has been transferred in to bush for herbal treatment because the Grand Kru County Superintendent claimed that there was no shooting and there is no money to further treatment.
He noted that shell of the bullet fire that injured Stephen is still in his possession and the medical practitioners at the Barclayville clinic advised that he be taken to Harper, Maryland County.
In July, 2020, traditional herbalist, Tanba Bondo, was sent for by the people of Pin-cess Town. in order to investigate the ritualistic killings in their area
During his stay, he uprooted several medicines believed to witch craft and brought a reduction in the mysterious killings in Pini-cess and Barclayville
But after one month of service, Superintendent Ylatun demanded that he was only given one month and as such he should leave, but the residents of Pini-cess rejected the demand of the local government for the traditional herbalist to leave
The traditional herbalist was transported to Monrovia under police escort based on the mandate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.