FIREARMS’ DISCHARGES AT GBORPLAY BORDER CROSSING BETWEEN LIBERIA AND COTE D’IVOIRE; REMEMBER DECEMBER 1989?
–LIS INITIATES INVESTIGATION, DISARMS 2 BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
IPNEWS: Reports emanating from Gborplay in Nimba County say a shootout ensued between two Border Patrol officers of the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) – Mohammed Kanneh and Cyrus Davies on one hand and a group of young people at the Gborplay border crossing linking neighboring Côte d’Ivoire.
According to an IPNEWS correspondent, at about 11:00 pm recently a group of young people in Gborplay decided to grant access to a truck that came from Ivory Coast reportedly loaded with cocoa, but upon notice by two LIS Border Patrol officers who were on their normal night patrol, they moved in to prevent the truck from entering but some young people in Gborplay at the Border resisted the LIS Border Patrol officers.
In the interim, an IPNEWS correspondent reports that the young continued their resistance against the two LIS Border Patrol officers, and when the officers knew that there were about to be overpowered and taking into account their lives were in danger decided to discharge their firearms into the air to disperse the young people from an unwholesome act of illegally allowing a truck from neighboring Ivory Coast to enter Liberia at 11 pm
The report says after the two LIS Border Patrol officers discharged their assigned firearms, some of the young people in Gborplay reportedly responded by allegedly firing single-barrel rounds, but there was no report of casualty.
It is said that some young people in Gborplay in Nimba County are in the constant habit of illegally allowing trucks into Liberia via the Gborplay border crossing point because there is a cocoa corporative in the town and most of the young people use the river at that end to cross into Ivory Coast to sell their cocoa to avoid paying tariffs at the main crossing point, but whenever the border closes at 6 pm, they will then use the night hours to open the border in the absence of assigned security officers to ferry their produce using trucks that illegally enter Liberia at the crossing point.
IPNEWS gathered that whenever the Gborplay border crossing is officially closed at 6 pm, Liberian security personnel usually leave the area and only go about doing regular patrols along the border to avert any unwholesome act by criminals or any other person.
And so it was on one of their regular night patrols that the two LIS Border Patrol officers came across some of the young people in Gborplay while allowing a truck from Ivory Coast to enter via the border into Liberia after the official 6 pm closing hours, thus leading to the feud that resulted to the officers discharging their respective assigned firearms to disperse the young who were about to overpower the officers.
Meanwhile, IPNEWS gathered that the Liberia Immigration Service commander in the area decided to disarm the two Border Patrol officers after learning about the shooting incident, but what is not known is what did the LIS hierarchy in Gborplay expect two of their officers to do when their lives were in danger while in the discharge of their duties at night patrol the border area.
IPNEWS has also gathered that some of the young people who reportedly attacked the two LIS Border Patrol officers have fled to Ivory Coast for fear of being arrested by Liberian security forces. Up to the publication of this report, there has been no report of any of the young people who were engaged in the attacks against the two LIS Border Patrol officers being arrested.
Gameplay during the Liberia Civil War in the 1990s
The town of Gborplay in Nimba County along the Liberia-Ivory Coast border was regularly in the news during the heat of the dreadful Liberia 14-year civil war.
During that period it was reported that Gborplay became a regular entry point for rebels of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia headed by former president Charles Taylor when he launched his revolution initially using another Nimba County town of Butuo and initially beaten back for erstwhile soldiers of the disbanded Armed Forces of Liberia.
The town of Gborplay also became the first training base of the NPFL rebel movement after it launched its rebellion against the Samuel Doe regime. During that period lot of child soldiers and youth were conscripted and trained at the Gborplay training base to form a part of Charles Taylor’s fighting forces.
So when the report of a shooting incident takes place at 11 pm in Gborplay it brings to mind the ugly past of the 1990s, especially when the shooting took place in December, the very same December Charles Taylor chose to launch his rebellion against Samuel Doe regime.
Meanwhile, IPNEWS made contact via phone with the LIS spokesperson who confirmed the shooting incident but promised to release full detail later on today. The LIS spokesperson said a team was dispatched to Gborplay following the incident to gather firsthand information and upon submission of their report the LIS will fully brief the Liberian people about what transpired at the Gborplay Border crossing point recently.
Pundits have told IPNEWS that the LIS commander at Gborplay should not have disarmed two of his officers who came under attack by some young people who wanted to allow a truck to enter Liberia after the hours to ferry cocoa against the border to Ivory Coast. But they said it should be the other way around where those young people who attacked the two LIS Border Patrol officers should be pursued and brought to book in keeping with the laws of Liberia.
Investigation continues….
