As Dangerous Pick Pockets On The Rise @ Business Centers
By Edwin M. Fayia, III, fayiaedwin@gmail.com
Liberia major business districts of Monrovia and Paynesville continue to encounter shocking wave of lawlessness, hooliganism and other related havoc of hijackings and pocket picking at the detriments of business people.
From the Monrovia suburb of Johnsonville, Bardnersville, Bushrod Island to Paynesville and central Monrovia, a gang weapons-carrying men roam communities almost every night, dispossessing residents of their properties and at times even taking precious lives.
Principally, these ugly acts are being carried out at the various crowded markets by well-organized gangster groups, which include war affected youths in Montserrado County.
In addition, crime analysts who spoke to www.newspublictrust.com pointed out that most of these crimes are carried and committed during broad day and late hours of the night in the two commercial hubs in Monrovia and Paynesville.
“Indeed, it is very dangerous to pass through Monrovia and Paynesville general markets during the peak hours of the evening as pocket pickers take up positions at strategic areas to rain havocs on their unsuspecting victims,” a crime analyst David P. Boimah asserted.
Another crime analyst told this news outlet that it seems to be the hooligans and gangsters have overwhelmed the security agencies and Liberians continue to live in constant fear, intimidation and misery in the two business districts of Monrovia and Paynesville in Montserrado County.
Analysts also intimated that their numbers are also on the rise. The gangsters are recruiting on a daily basis by hundreds of disenchanted and poverty stricken youths in several parts of Monrovia, Paynesville and its environs.
Security collusion?
Moreover, the hooligans and some of the supporters who are allegedly some top security personnel, take the advantage of the crowded natures of the various market areas and launch their heinous criminal activities every day of the week throughout the year at the two commercial hubs in Monrovia and Paynesville.
The crime analysts further attributed the ugly acts of the hooligans and gangsters to illiteracy, poor education and abject poverty in all their ugly forms, manners and shapes.
Besides, the crime analysts explained that majority of the hooligans and gangsters are not trained with any sustainable profession and marketable skills that could in turn give them the opportunity to work and earn decent living.
The various havocs and setbacks the hooligans and gangsters continue to carry out have been forwarded to the Liberian security agencies through public outcries, formal complaints. And on many occasions, protests in the form of mob actions in many parts of the country with Montserrado County at the top of the list of heinous crimes.
In a week tour two commercial districts of Paynesville and Monrovia’s densely populated general markets, it was openly observed and seen by this writer the hooligans and gangsters were seen peeking in the bags, pockets and making away with other valuables, as they carry sharp instruments in well-organized ways.
In separate interviews with market women and men at the two commercial hubs this week, they sounded urgent calls on the heads of state security agencies to design some practical monitoring mechanisms, in order to checkmate the hooligans and gangsters at the various markets in Monrovia and Paynesville cities.
Businesswoman Hawa B. Harris, 45, used clothes entrepreneur for over ten years of Waterside Market in Monrovia claimed that she has been hijacked on several occasions and her money and other valuable items made away by the hooligans and gangsters.
Another charcoal wholesale dealer, Betty D. Kollie, 38, said two weeks ago after she sold her twenty bags of charcoal at the Red-Light Market. She was allegedly hijacked in an isolated area and a little over LD$10,000.00 made away by a group of gangsters that fateful evening in Paynesville.
“My goodness, I came in direct contact with fifteen drug infested gangsters group that attacked last week after a good sale of my several flour bags, dry beans and onion, I was attacked by the notorious group and made away with more than LD$85,000,” Businessman George B. Simpson narrated in frustration.