Report from Bong County says several valuable items allegedly stolen from the Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) has been uncovered.The missing items, including a 50kva generator, fencing wires, and an air conditioner, were all discovered packed in a compound in the Millionaire Quarter Community in Gbarnga over the weekend.The assets are among several other missing items believed to have been removed from the institute’s premises by its head of Natural Resource Management, David Tokpah.
Other missing items include fuel tankers and containers. The stolen materials are believed to be assets turned over to CARI by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) upon its departure in 2018.
Several contingents of UNMIL were stationed at CARI at different periods during the mission’s operations in Liberia.
Tokpah, the staff at the center of the allegation, has denied having any idea about how the materials left CARI and got in the compound in Gbarnga.There have been claims and counterclaims among staffers at the institute regarding how and when the materials were removed from CARI’s Suakoko premises.
Arthur Wenneh, a Research Assistant at the institute, told Radio Gbarnga, a Community radio station in the Bong County that several assets were taken away by Tokpah, who normally acted as head in the absence of the Officer in Charge Paulette Findley.
CARI’s Management has requested the Liberian National Police Bong Detachment to intervene and investigate the situation.
The Management’s letter to the Police specified that ’the alleged missing items included a 50kva electric generator, two fuel tankers, and some other unspecified items.’
Bong Assistant Commissioner of Police, Frederick Nepay, told our Bong County correspondent recently that the Police now have the discovered assets, and would promptly launch a full-scale investigation.
The Police are yet to make an arrest in the case, however, CARI Boss Findley has ordered Tokpah’s suspension and has requested that he turns over all CARI assets pending the Police investigation.By Joseph Titus Yekeryan in Bong–Edited by Winston W. Parley
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