Liberia Immigration Service Dismisses Three officers for allegedly Beating Muslim Clerics and Fraudulent Act

By: William Howard

Monrovia – The Liberia Immigration Service has dismissed two officers, Howard Zubah and Ephraim Torlue for allegedly beating two Imams while on their way from prayer and the other, Ismael Kaikai for reportedly awarding a fake visas to a Chinese national.

Making the disclosure, the LIS Commissioner General Robert Budy said the action of the dismissed officers is in violation of the Penal Code of Liberia. Mr. Budy said they have been forwarded to court for prosecution.

According to Budy, Zubah and Torlue, along with their two other colleagues, Alfred Tarr and Williette Karngar in plain clothes, confronted the two Imams –  Mohamed Fofana and Ayouba Fofana at Red Light in April, and demanded them to turn over their residential documents.

Budy said the internal investigation established that the Imams refused the officer’s request because they were not properly identified, and this angered them. He said Zubah and Torlue went the extra mile by handcuffing and beating the Muslim Clerics and inflicting bodily wounds on them.

“Without recognizing the two officers, the Imams could not present their legal documents to the officers who were wearing plain clothes; an act that is said, led to the anger of one of the officers, thereby handcuffing the Imam and throwing him into the gutters, and  at the same time inflating wounds on him,” the LIS boss said.

He stated that officers Tarr and Karngar were suspended for two months without pay because of their role in the incident.

Commenting on Kaikai’s alleged fraudulent act, the LIS boss said he was dismissed for forging his signature on a fake visas for a Chinese national at the cost of US$400.