By: D. Jallah Massah

IPNews-Monrovia: Yesterday, August 4, 2019, was another historic tragedy when some aggrieved youths paraded the streets of Paynesville city  and  various communities angrily searching for drug users commonly know as ‘Zogoes’,  in reaction to the death of a 20 year boy who was stabbed with a knife in the struggle to recover his belongings.

Upon hearing if the boy’s death news at the hands of the Zogoes, some group of citizens arose in numbers at the Red-light-Pipeline areas with swift  retaliation the killing of little Johnson Flomo, age 20,  whose Cellcom small phone worth $ 10 USD and money were snatched and then stabbed with knife between his arm and neck.

The incident sparked an outburst of mob action by the angry residents who apparently have gotten tired with the continuous harassment of peaceful citizens in the full glare of police without reprimand.

The mob action was taken to the hideouts of the petty thieves, snatchers and robbers leaving to the death of at least four zogoes and several sharks being used as their hideouts set ablaze.

Our reporter who visited the scene also said some stores in the area were burned while business tables destroyed.

The citizens’ aggression comes in the wake of continued reports of harassments of peaceful citizens en route to a job or to attend to their businesses along the Paynesville Red-light belt who are usually attacked and victimized by the criminals who usually made their away back to these hideouts, usually in nearby ghettos.

One of the dens, the infamously known as “Poultry” where they run to after their attacks on peaceful people with knives, cutlasses, and other sharp instruments in demand of items such as cell-phones, money etc., was also burned down by the angry crowd.

An eyewitness not wanting name call explained that Flomo was going to repair his small Cellcom phone before going to church when he was hijacked by the criminals in the area and his phone and money forcibly taken him.

Flomo’s younger brother, Vessallee  Flomo, who explained the ordeal of his deceased brother Johnson, narrated that his brother was stabbed while fighting back to recover his belongs from the criminals.

According to Vessellie, the late Johnson Flomo finished his football practice at about 9:30 and decided to go at the Red-light to fix his phone, and upon getting down from a motorbike that conveyed him into the area, suddenly as he was paying the motorbiker his fare the Zogoes surrounded him and took  his phone and money.

“He attempted  getting back his items from the Zogoes when one of them that was very close to him stabbed him  between his arm and neck with a knife, ”

Vessallee in tears narrated, saying that his brother Johnson was quickly rushed at the Tony’s Clinic for medication, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival by the Physician Assistant at the Clinic.

He disclosed that the deceased was a resident of the Johnsonville community and a 2012 high school graduate of the Ducu Academy in Red-light.

When contacted, the Physician Assistant on duty at the clinic, Mr G. Moses Tokpah, said the victim was already dead before taking him to the clinic, saying that the body of the deceased was deposited at a funeral home which he did not name.

Meanwhile, several residents told our reporter multiple horrible acts carried out by the zogoes in the area.

“The constant act of harassments from criminals has now prompted the reaction of some citizens because the criminals are creating fear in various neighbourhoods in Paynesville and its environs amidst the overwhelming support from residents over the plan to eliminate all unlawful parasitic beings who want to always live at the detriment of others,” another eyewitness said.

The eyewitness said the situation went volatile as the angry crowd moved about from one community to another in the hunt for Zogoes who they vowed to eliminate,   saying “Enough is enough”.  As tension built, people on the scene witnessed the sticks and stone-carrying angry crowd horribly beating to death one of the criminals at the vicinity of Beliko School.

At the Pipeline Road’s “Poultry’, a place where the criminals are said to have been mainly concentrated claimed the attention of many residents and business owners who classified the thievery by the zogoes as total embarrassment, eyewitnesses said.

They explained that whenever some of the criminals were caught in the act and taken to the police, they were released without redress, a reason why the citizens were set awaiting an incident that would give them a cause to retaliate in a manner and form reminiscent of waging war on them. “This is why the incident today sparked tension in this manner.

According to one of the community eyewitnesses, Mr. Jefferson G. Lomax, the incident started as early as 9-10 am when he witnessed the victim struggling to retrieve his items taken from him, situation that led to his untimely demise when victim Johnson Flomo was stabbed with the iron from an umbrella, contrary to others who said the victim was stabbed with knife.

He said the action of citizens was a clear manifestation of their unwillingness to suffer the pains and agony from criminals’ identified as zogoes.

Lomax said he overheard some members of the angry people saying that the attack on zogoes will be a continuous exercise until the government can intervene by making sure that the killers of Johnson are brought to justice.

Others noted that the citizen’s action will serve as deterrence in the Red-light Paynesville area, blaming the police who they said always compromise with the criminals for the horrible state of the area.

Meanwhile, the zogoes are said to have fled their hideouts in the Red-light areas while the residents have mounted a hunt for them all.