2 electrocuted in Paynesville

At least two persons, all females have been electrocuted in Ballah Creek Community, Jacob’s Town in Paynesville. Eyewitnesses told The NewDawn the victims whose corpses could not be identified by residents of the community, were riding on a commercial motorcycle when they came in contact with an electric wire that reportedly dropped across the main route leading to the community.

They narrated that the rider of the commercial motorbike, who earlier saw the electric wire, immediately jumped off the bike thereby, leaving the victims to run into it. According to them, the whereabouts of the unidentified motorcyclist is unknown, but there are indications that he may have gone in hiding for fear of being arrested.

Eyewitnesses said one of the victims left behind a 10-month-old baby, and was a business woman selling at the Paynesville Red Light General Market prior to the incident. The authorities of the Ballah Creek community reportedly patrolled across the community with a megaphone, announcing the incident and calling on residents to come out and identify the victims, but most of them that showed up and glanced at the bodies, could not recognized them as members of the community.

Residents said it has become a common practice nowadays in Liberia, particularly in Monrovia where people claiming to be electrician are contracted to electrify homes, using speaker wires to provide electricity supply which in most cases endangers lives.

They called on the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) to dispatch its quick reaction team to the area to disconnect all illegal connections which continue to pose grave danger to inhabitants and their properties. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports say the bodies of the women have been deposited at the John F. Kennedy Hospital (JFK) in Sinkor.

By Emmanuel Mondaye-Editing by Jonathan Browne