Harry Greaves found dead on beach

Former Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company or LPRC Managing Director Mr. Harry Greaves has been found dead on the beach behind the fence of the Executive Mansion grounds, barely three days after he went missing from the RLJ Kendija Hotel, off the Robertsfield Highway. The former LPRC boss was discovered completely naked lying on the beach.

The site where the corpse of Mr. Greaves lie on Sunday morning, January 31, was just few meters away from where the lifeless body of a controversial lawyer, Cllr. Michael Alison, a key witness in an oil consultation scandal involving high profile government officials from the Legislative branch of government was found in February 2015.

The discovery of Greaves body on the beach comes just a week after the Managing Director of the Guarantee Trust Bank or GT Bank Mr. Don Orogon felt off a boat he had been riding on with businessman George Kailondo and drown.

Greaves, according to multiple sources had entered the RLJ Hotel owe by American Billionaire Bob Johnson, on Friday January 29, as his driver awaited him outside the hotel parking lot. But he did not come out that Friday as his driver slept in the vehicle hopping his boss would returned that morning, but that was in vein.

Sources said the driver then called his wife, Mrs. Precious A. Greaves with whom he had been on separation and the police were immediately informed. A search located Mr. Greaves clothes he had worn on the beachside of the hotel.

Other sources who spotted the body before forensic officers could concealed it reported deep cuts on the head. “The Liberian National Police can confirm to the public … that the body discovered on the beach is that of the former Managing Director of the LPRC Harry Greavesm,” Police spokesman Sam Collins told reporters on the scene Sunday.

“He was identified by his wife, and other family members and I think that gives some leverage to the police in terms of investigation. We will continue to update the public as the investigation continues,” Mr. Collins concluded as he cut short the interview.

The cause of death is yet to be established but some family members are claiming foul play, as some residents who claimed to have seen the body before the arrival of the police spoke of marks being of the head..

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the residents they saw the body in the morning prior to police’s arrival, alleging to have seen cut on the victim’s head. Riot police officers sealed the scene as forensic team from the LNP carried out some investigative works before taking the body to the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Sinkor, suburb of Monrovia.

Police did not permit photographing of the body until forensics were through with their work and had it sealed up before being photographed by journalists. A man claiming to be a foster brother of the late Greaves,r Mr. Ishamel Kaka Waykeh said on Friday, January 29, they heard the news from the house that Mr. Greaves had gone to Kendija beach with his driver and could not be seen up to the next day, Saturday, 30 January.

“And after the whole day the driver slept, the following day the news reached us that they can’t find the old man. And that’s just how the whole thing started. They said they found his body behind the Mansion from RLJ,” Mr. Waykeh who was also at the site where Greaves’ corpse lie told reporters. “I’m not a security to say I suspect something, but the family we just feel funny; it looks … because from RLJ … we are not the experts to say. What I heard was he was not well; his brother said he had not been well,” he added.

Mr. Greaves was one of the key supporters of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and was instrumental on the campaign trail of Sirleaf’s 2005 presidential bid. Mr. Greaves stepped down as economic advisor to the then chair of the National Transitional Government of Liberia or NTGL, to support Sirleaf’s candidacy. Shortly after Sirleaf’s election, Mr. Greaves was named Managing Director of LPRC.

In Sept. 2009, Mr. Greaves was dismissed by President Sirleaf based on an investigative report submitted by the Henry Reed Cooper Committee. The committee was set up to probe reports of flaws, illegality and lack of transparency surrounding a contract that Mr. Greaves, through LPRC arranged with a firm called Zakhem. Mr. Greaves reign at LPRC was marred by controversy surrounding a Nigerian oil deal in 2006.\

Since his exit from government, Mr. Greaves remained vocal on issues. In September last year, he led several Liberians in a protest at the Capitol Building against the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy, calling for the withdrawal of the regulatory power given to the Ministry by the Liberian Senate in the recently enacted 2015 Electricity bill in Liberia.

In a petition addressed to House Speaker J. Alex Tyler, Greaves urged members of the House to debate a clause in the bill which calls for the regulatory commission to be housed by the Lands, Mines and Energy Ministry.

Mr. Greaves death, like his life remains clouded in controversy. A senior police official confided in this paper that government is seriously considering conducting an autopsy his body in the coming days. 

By Othello B. Garblah, Winston W. Parley & E.J Nathaniel Daygbor