OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL The Reporters Association of Liberia Clay Street, Monrovia, Liberia. Cell Contacts: 0886775571/0770130629 Email: boimajvboima@gmail November 9th, 2014 Office of the President, Executive Mansion, The Republic of Liberia. Dear Madam President, With compliments, I write to officially complain Col. A.B. Kroma, Deputy Police Director for Operations for continuously abusing my rights as a journalist. Madam President on Friday, October 7th, 2014 at the specific hour of 8.10 p.m., while on upper Broad Street (Durcor Hill) awaiting a friend, Col. A.B.Kroma arrived in the area and ordered everyone to leave. Upon hearing this, one of those seated in person of Rep. Moses Accarius Gray questioned the intent of the police chiefs order. There, a bitter argument ensued between the duo. As the argument intensified. Col. Kroma requested everyone including myself to leave the scene saying that he had already requested for a deadly backup from the headquarters of the LNP. Upon hearing this, I decided to leave. Madam President, it would interest you to note that as I attempted to walk away from the area, with my I.D. Card well displayed to identify myself, more than four police officers including one, indentified as 117 assigned with Col. Kroma, walked to me, flogged me with batons, smuggled me into a police patrol pickup, and took me to the LNP headquarters where I was subsequently placed on the ground and told to write a statement in the albescence of my lawyers indicting myself (but I refused). They later detained me for hours. Madam president, prior to my arrival at the police head-office , the police officers who drove me to the LNP headquarters, took away my personal belongings including; two mobile phones ( one Celcom 4G and a US$10 Novafone), a mini Ipod, my ATM Card and my wellet with a US$50. Madam President, while under detention in one of the police cells, I was constantly tortured (they flogged me, used electric shock and asked me to lay down on a cold floor like a criminal) by officers who prevented me from making contacts with my family, lawyers, colleagues and other relatives to inform them about my ordeal. Madam President, Col. A.B. Kroma or 102 also approached and informed me that I sided with Rep. Gray for insulting him and that I am always in the habit of badmouthing the police. He said I had also done a similar act in the previous case between him and Journalist Octavin Williams. He said I sided with Octavin Williams by taking to the airwave to ‘use all sorts of demeaning adjectives against him during my radio conversation on the issue. He said it was now time to stop such a running mouth politics and propaganda against the police. While serving my detention at the LNP headquarters, Col. Kroma also informed me that it was you, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who instructed and ordered him to arrest and put me amongst harden criminals to sodomize me (I was never sodomonize however. God mercy and guidance towards my life prevented that from happening), and that my family and colleagues would never see me again. He even bragged before his junior officers in his office that he enjoys your full blessing and support and that you personally advised him to do what he did to me so as to serve as a deterrent against my continuous criticisms against the police. Madam President, after hours behind bars, I succeeded in making some contacts to relatives and other colleagues who intervened in my situation. At the LNP headquarters, prior to my release, Col. Kroma attempted to again, coerce me to admit to the crime of simple assault against a peaceful officer in the presence of my family and others who were seated in his office by switching his cell phone to a video mode to record me while I made the said purported confession. He insisted that I should admit that I was drunk and that it was due to my disorderly conduct that the police arrested me. But I refused on grounds that my arrest and subsequent detention was unjustifiable. He later told the Vice President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) Jallah Grayfith to sign a prepared note in his presence indicting me to the said allegations levied with a reservation that, he could request for me at anytime I take to the airwave to tell the Liberian people about his action against me. Vice President Grayfith a close friend of Col. Kroma who claimed to have gone to the LNP headquarters to secure my release, signed the purported note without acquainting me with the details. Deputy Police Director Kroma also gave me a US$ 20 note as his contribution for my missing properties before releasing me to my family and colleagues ‘with no charge. Until my departure from the LNP headquarters, both the PUL Vice President and the deputy police director were locked behind closed doors. All these occurred in the presence of my family, friends, and colleagues who converged at the LNP headquarters to sympathize with me for the ungodly act levied against my person by a police force expected to take over from the United Nation Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) peacekeepers currently drawing down in the country. This is not the first time that the deputy director of police for operations have personally attacked or intimidated me in line with my job as a journalist. Few months back, he prevented me from covering a police press conference that I was invited to cover at the headquarters of the LNP. As we peacefully sat to await the appearance of the police authorities at the scheduled conference, Col. Kroma surfaced and ordered my immediate dismissal from the venue. Madam President, in the presence of my colleagues, I was also forced out of that conference on claims that I am not a friend of the police. Other journalists who witnessed the scene later left in protest of the deputy police chiefs action against. Also, some weeks ago, following the mysterious murder of one unknown man at the ELWA Junction, Col. Kroma aborted a press interview as a result of my presence in the area. He told journalists who had attempted to ask him questions about the murder that as far as I was on the scene, he could not grant the interview. So I later asked him why? he said: you always reporting false news about the police operations. After that, he left the area on claims that he was responding to your (President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf) call. Madam President, I have decided to bring all of these incidents to your attention so as to inform you about how the men and women, your government pay through our taxes, turn against peaceful citizens, and us daily for performing our duties as journalists. This is not what the many Liberian people including myself wished for, when we elected you as our president in 2005 and 2011 respectively. Yes Madam President, no one told me that under your regime, I would be unjustifiably arrested by a police chief, denied access to my lawyers and latter coerced to admit to a crime that I never committed. Let it be noted here today that such actions are only reminiscent of tyrannical, dictatorial, barbaric, undemocratic, and military regimes. But we are being govern by you, a Nobel peace laureate and the first female president of Africa elected under the canopies of democracy coupled with the promises of good governance and an adherence to the rule of law. So, why must our rights be continously violated by those you entrusted with the responsibility to protect us, Madam President? Why must my rights be violated under you Madam President? Why must Col. Kroma arrest and free me at will with no access to my lawyers as a result of personal malice harbored against me in line with the execution of my work as a journalist? Madam President, allowing this to be buried under the carpet like other serious human rights violations recorded against the deputy police chief, would now confirm your critics claim that the only difference between your government and the likes of slain President Samuel K. Doe and Charles Taylor is the silence of the gun. Madam President, I am of the hope and conviction that as a leader who respect and tolerate the views of all, you will intervene in this matter by ensuring that I get justice at all cost. Respectfully Yours, Boima J.V. Boima Director of News, Hot FM 107.9 FM And Journalist at the New Democrat Newspaper. CC/ The Ministry of Justice CC/ Col. Chris Massaquoi, Director of Police, The Liberia National Police (LNP). CC/ Press Union of Liberia (PUL) CC/The Independent Human Rights Commission of Liberia (IHRC) CC/ Bernard Benson, CEO/Manager, ONE MEDIA HOUSE/Hot FM 107.9 CC/ Mr. Tipitapia Sannah, Acting Managing Editor, The New Democrat Newspaper CC/West Africa Journalist Association CC/Reporters without Border CC/The International Law Group (ILG) CC/The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) CC/ The US Embassy CC/The US STATE DEPARTMENT CC/European Union CC/ African Union CC/The ECOWAS CC/ UNMIL CC/ Civil Societies of Liberia CC/ German Embassy
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 18:56:36 +0000
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