By Emmanuel Mafelah,mafelahemmanuel29@gmail.com
Gbarnga, Liberia- Some citizens in Liberia’s central Bong County have called for everything to be done to get to the bottom of the alleged squandering of millions of US dollars invested into the construction of the Bong Technical College BTC) in the provincial capital, Gbarnga.
The locals want former and present officials of the County indicted by the Circuit Court in Bong for an acts of corruption to be thoroughly investigated to establish the truth of what happened to the huge sums of money made available for the construction works.
Recently, the Grand Jury of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County through the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) indicted several persons for acts of corruption in the construction of the College.
Those indicted include Bong County former Representatives, George Mulbah, Sr. and Tokpah Mulbah, as well as current Representatives Edward Karfiah and Melvin Cole.
Others are Rennie Jackson; former Bong County Superintendent; John Flomo, former President of the Bong County Technical College; Thomas Cisco, Project Specialist at the Ministry of Internal Affairs; Kenneth Yao Awadjie, former Assistant Chief Architect at the Ministry of Public Works; Marcus Berrian, Project Engineer, Project Implementation Unit, Bong County; and Lian Zhi, Chief Executive Officer of the Liberia China United Investment Group.
Those indictees are charged with the offenses of violation of PPCC Act, Theft of Property, and Fraud of the Internal Revenue of Liberia, Criminal Conspiracy and Criminal Facilitation.
The accused individuals are expected to defend themselves in court as to their various roles in the scam.
In an interview with www.newspublictrust.com in this County, the aggrieved citizens said it is very disappointing for their leaders in Bong whom are to be pushing their developmental agenda both on local and National level will be involved in the act of corruptions.
The aggrieved citizens are at the same time calling for the recusals of those alleged crooks occupying position in this current government in the country.
According to the records, these charges grew out of transactions they were involved with relating to the construction of the college during the period of December 2009 up to January 2016 while serving and acting in various capacities, in total violation of the laws of Liberia.
Additionally, those accused criminals converted to their own use and benefit, money from the Social and County Development Funds for Bong County Technical College in the amount of US$2,681,491.30 through various fraudulent schemes to include deceptively selecting Liberia China United Investment Group as the qualified company to construct the BCTC in Gbarnga, Bong County in violation of the PPCC Act.
Meanwhile, the people of Bong County are calling on President Dr. George M. Weah through the Ministry of Justice to thoroughly investigate those leaders some Bongese described as “wicked and corrupt”.