IPNEWS: The families of the three boys who allegedly went missing in controversial circumstances have taken the Government of Liberia to the ECOWAS Court in Abuja, Nigeria seeking justice as well as petitioning the Department of Justice to demand justice after the government of Liberia had shown interest in unearthing the mystery, thereby keeping the families in a dark even after the Ministry of Justice had initiated a panel report.
Speaking to newsmen during a petitioning ceremony at premises of the United States Embassy, near Monrovia, where the several family members had gathered, the spokesman of the families, Beyan Zogar Brumskine, said that they have written the ECOWAS Court to lodge a formal complaint against the government and demanding justice to be exerted for their missing family members, whose fate cannot be explained for a protracted period of time now.
‘’We have written to the ECOWAS Court. We are taking this case to ECOWAS. We have written to ECOWAS about this and they have also written to the government of Liberia about this case. We have submitted the relevant documents.”
‘Let me say this publicly for you all to know because this is a secret and I want to bust it out, we have gotten the United States government involved. We are in conversation with Mr. Alien White of the United States government and also the Department of Justice about this case. Currently, we are providing the evidence and other documents to be sent to America’’ Mr. Brumskine explained. Mr. Beyan Zogar
Brumskine argued that the government of Liberia through the Ministry of Justice has refused to make available to them the investigation and recommendation from the Independent Panel established by the government to present the report to them since they released it on June 1, 2022.
‘’We are disappointed in the government because they have refused to do the appropriate thing. The country had been handed down to a group of boys that is why at the end of the day we don’t have a government and country. Our country has failed us, our government has disappointed us. It’s a shame and pity that for two years and our government has not said anything and the Justice Minister is playing hide and seek with us’’ he said further.
The petition claimed that since the Ministry of Justice instituted an independent Investigative panel to probe the situation and present finding to the families with regards to the whereabouts of their children, they have not received the report, hence they were seeking external intervention that will compel the government to release the report as well as dispense justice for the victim.
The petition points out that since the group completed their investigation on September 5, 2022 and submitted their recommendation and findings to the office of the Minister of Justice, Frank Musa Dean, he has refused to give them copy to be presented to the lawyer representing the families.
‘’Instead of letting us know that we should go and get a copy of the report, Minister Dean was inviting the biological mothers and maternal siblings to provide specimens for DNA of the bodies discovered to establish whether the bodies have any biological lineage to family members’’ said Elijah Wilson, who read the statement.
According to him, in a meeting on October 3, 2022, they informed the Minister of Justice in a mini conference room, that they needed a copy of the report to be taken to their legal team to review and advise them accordingly.
‘’We maintain and restate our commitment for the right to know, seek justice and bring closure to the mystery surrounding our children. We continue to be agonized and live in trauma as our faith hangs in the balance. We have and will continue to cooperate with the government investigative panel in spite of very erroneous assertion by the government through Cllr. Dean that we have refused to cooperate’’, he stated.
It can be recalled that the three boys were said to have reportedly drown on October 17, 2022 in a river while returning to Monrovia after doing some jobs for the owner of the St. Moses Funeral home, Mr. Moses Ahossoule and another person, Mr. Abraham G. Samuel. The Independent Investigative Panel Comprising the Liberia National Police (LNP) Representative of various Security Agencies, Association of Female Lawyers (AFFLL), The Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR) and the Inter-religious Council.
