Broh raids drug users

General Services Agency or GSA Director General Madam Mary Tarnyonoh Broh, currently leading a Presidential Task Force to clean Monrovia and its environs has raided scores of suspected drugs users from their hideouts in the capital. The suspects were seen in handcuffs and trucked apparently to detention.

A stressful traffic commenced from central Monrovia through Sinkor after working hours on Tuesday evening, December 1, as residents of 5TH Street Sinkor and eager pedestrians lined the sidewalks to witness how Madam Broh under heavy protection of riot officers from the Police Support Unit collected young people in handcuffs.

By-standers claim Madam Broh and members of her Taskforce aided by the riot police confiscated huge quantity of drugs in the raid, but this paper could not immediately get comment from the GSA boss as her convoy was already leaving the scene as our reporter arrived.

Some of those captured in photographs by this paper were heard screaming in a jammed- packed pickup as they were being driven away in Broh’s convoy from Sinkor to Monrovia.

It is not clear what action Madam Broh and her task-force will take after the arrest of the individuals concerned, and police on the other hand have failed to speak to this paper on where the suspects were taken.

Madam Broh is heading a Presidential Task Force that has allegedly received an operational budget of US$400,000 to clean Monrovia. The exercise has since been greeted by mixed-reactions with some applauding her while others criticize the demolition of makeshift structures erected on public land and in alleyways.
The Liberia National Police is responsible for criminal matters, while drugs related matters are referred to the Drugs Enforcement Agency or DEA.

When contacted, Police Spokesman Sam Collins said he is not working for Mary Broh though PSU officers from the Liberia National Police were part of Tuesday’s raid.
Monrovia has always seen rise in petty and major criminality around the festive seasons when the capital gets more congested, as criminals roam the streets from ghettos to snatch away people’s belongings.

The police have recently announced tougher measures against such acts, vowing to deal with armed robbers decisively when caught.

By Winston W. Parley– Edited by Jonathan Browne