Deputy Commerce boss dies in car crash

Little did he know that hanging out with some friends at an entertainment in the Monrovia suburb of Paynesville would have been his last moment on planet earth not until while driving home along the Robertsfield highway in the early morning hours of Saturday 5 March, when Deputy Commerce Minister for Administration, Cyril Allen, Jr., who was driving alone in his official vehicle, ran under an abandoned broken truck, killing him instantly.

The crash took place at the intersection of the Robert L. Johnson Hotel in Kendeja over the weekend at about 4:00a.m. The broken truck did not have reflector to signal approaching drivers that there is a parked vehicle ahead.

The late deputy minister Allen was the son of Chief Cyril Allen, closed ally of ex-President Charles Ghankay Taylor and former chairman of Mr. Taylor’s ex-ruling National Patriotic Party, NPP. Meanwhile, his remains have been deposited at the Samuel Strikers Funeral Home in Sinkor, Monrovia, funeral arrangements for a state burial.

The late Cyril Allen II served the Government of Liberia as Deputy Minister for Central Administration at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. During his tenure, he supervised the physical rebranding and organizational restructuring of the Ministry.

He developed several policies at the Ministry which are currently being implemented with great success, including staff training and induction policy, and fleetmanagement, among others. Human capital building was also a major feature of Minister Allen’s tenure as DMA.Between May 2013 and November 2014 over 213 Ministry of commerce employees were trained both at home and abroad. He also managed and maintained the ministry’s budget execution rate at over 95% and serviced up to 75% of its previously accumulated debt.

The late deputy commerce boss managed the operational affairs of the ministry’s extensions which include the National Standards Lab and the Liberia Business Registry. Before his tenure as Deputy Minister, he served the Government of Liberia as Resident Coordinator of the Mano River Union (MRU) Liberia Office.

While serving as the Resident Coordinator, Mr. Allen established meaningful networks with Liberia’s international partners such as the African Development Bank, the European Union, the United Nations and the West African Health Organization. He developed projects and sourced additional funding to the MRU, increasing the Union’s capacity in addressing cross border security and trade issues, among many other achievements prior to his sudden demise.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor-Edited by Jonathan Browne