Police shelving report on Darlington?

Police authorities in Monrovia have seemingly put “on shelve” report on the outcome of investigation conducted against the dismissed Deputy Director of the elite Presidential security unit, Executive Protection Service or EPS, Darlington George and his junior officer for allegedly brutalizing a female resident of Barnerville Estate, Somalia Drive, Esther Glain.

Despite previous assurance by the Liberia National Police that the public would be informed of the investigation when findings already submitted to the Justice Ministry had returned to the police, uncertainty and skepticism remain very high here whether Mr. George and his accomplice, Junior officer Tamba would appear before any judge soon given the “unresponsive” posture being adapted by authorities handling the case.

This latest move comes after Police told journalists here that they were finalizing plans to send the accused former Assistant Police Director for Operations to court. Before President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf departed Liberia in mid-September to attend the recent UN Summit in New York, she dismissed Darlington, the accused from the EPS and ordered an immediate investigation into claims of the alleged brutality against victim Glain whose bloody pictures had flooded the social media here.

After weeks of probe, police authorities recently disclosed they have concluded and subsequently forwarded findings to the Ministry of Justice for perusal after which details would be released to the public. But now there seems to be conflicting accounts coming from the police, opposed to earlier pronouncement on Monday, 5 October that Mr. George and his junior officer were heading to court under separate charges of simple assault and criminal attempt to commit murder.

 Repeated follow-ups with deputy police spokesman Lewis Norman since Monday this week have yielded no tangible results, as he finally told reporters on Thursday, 8 October that he would get back to the public later.
“We will get back to the public later; we will get back to the public later on the issue of Darlington George. It is not to my knowledge; we will get back to the public at a later [date],” Mr. Norman said when reporters engaged him on the status of the case.

Ms. Esther Glain, brutally assaulted by the dismissed deputy EPS director, told a local live radio talk show recently in Monrovia that it all started on Sunday, September 13, at 9:00 AM, while sitting with some friends watching a soccer match at the Barnerville sports pitch in Barnerville Estate when a vehicle with tainted windshields drove very close and nearly ran into them so out of fear, they yelled to the driver to stop.

According to her, when she went and knocked on the tainted windshields of the car’s door, Mr. George stepped out of the car and walked to them, looking right in their faces and called them prostitutes.

Continuing, she said when they inquired why the senior presidential guard referred to them as prostitutes, he slapped her and kicked her in the stomach, remarking:  “I will beat you and nothing will come from it.”
“So he ordered his boys to beat on me and one of them by the name D.K. Tamba, also an EPS officer, took a Malta bottle and gashed my face, leaving me unconscious as the vehicle drove away.

By Winston W. Parley- Edited by Jonathan Browne