Grand Cape Mount: Angry Youths Rampage At Lofa Bridge

Hundreds of angry youths last weekend went on the rampage at Lofa Bridge, Gola Konneh District, Grand Cape Mount County, disrupting normal activities in the area. The protesters had gone on the rampage demanding that the local police handover to them the living body of a suspect, Varney  Kamara,  35,  accused of being connected to the mysterious disappearance of a 70-year-old man identified as Mamadee Flomo.

The youths also claimed that local authorities in the district (Gola Konneh) were not doing much to curtail the disappearance of residents within the district, saying “we are fed up with our people living in perpetual fear.”

The angry youths armed with cutlasses, sticks and other weaponry, our correspondent said, threatened to burn down the police depot and vehicle if the police resisted their action.

However, before the protesters could reach the said police depot to get suspect Kamara, the police officers assigned at the depot fled the area for their dear lives.

Thus when the youths arrived at the police depot, there was no resistance to their move as they quickly got the suspect out of prison. But the melee was brought under control by a reinforced police team from Roberts Sport who prevented the lynching of suspect Kamara.

Giving details of what prompted the attempted mob action, a resident told our correspondent, that days before the incident, the suspect had gone in the forest with the elderly man in search of scrap materials but that since then Flomo had not been seen.

But when arrested in connection to the mysterious disappearance of Flomo, Kamara told the police authorities in the area that old man Flomo informed he (Kamara) that he had caterpillar parts in the forest which could be used for scraps and that he needed his help to go and bring same to town for sale.

Kamara said when they went in search of the scraps materials and after almost an hour, they could not find anything, he told Flomo for them to return to the town but the latter declined, insisting that he took the lead and he would have followed later.

“When Kamara returned to the town without Flomo, family members of the missing man notified the police about their kinsman. As the news went around angry youths began to gathered ready to take the law into their hands claiming enough was enough because of the disappearance of lot of people in the district, “one of the residents of the area added.

Meanwhile, report says no one has been arrested in connection with the demonstration.