The Inquirer (Monrovia)
Garmonyou Wilson and Janjay Cambell
1 November 2008
Information Minister, Lawrence K. Bropleh said the security situation in the country is calm and that there are no rebel activities anywhere in the country as is being speculated.
Minister Bropleh said the security situation in the country is very strong and that the Liberian security forces are working in collaboration with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), to provide the kind of security the nation needs.
Speaking yesterday at the ministry when he addressed the press, Minister Bropleh said there are no rebels in the country contrary to speculations.
He refuted reports of sporadic shooting in the Bushrod Island Community, and said what was really happening in the area, was that some illicit drugs were being collected and destroyed by the security forces, something, which he said made some people to panic and ran amok.
He then urged residents not to panic but rather go about their normal business as there is no threat to the security of the state.
Prior to Minister Bropleh's address to the press, news that emanated from the Parker Corner area in Lower Virginia, Brewerville, said the residents were awakened yesterday morning to what seemed to be the sound of gun fire.
The disturbance brought fear to the entire Parker Corner community to the extent that concerned Liberians were calling from all parts of the world to find out if the alleged firing was factual.
School children were told to go home and business people stayed away from their Duala Market selling places while phone calls exaggerated the incident. However, some people who visited the scene refuted the allegation and that brought some relief to the numerous panic-stricken Parker Corner community dwellers.
A reporter from this paper went to the community behind the Daniel E. Davies School, in Parker Corner where in an area called Right Bank Wing our reporter interacted with some elders appertaining to the alleged sporadic shooting.
They categorically dismissed the allegation and explained that the so-called gun shots were from consignments of expired drugs burnt by the authorities of the Ministry of Health.
The burning took place at a village not distant from Right Bank Wing, called Cobolo Village where neighbors of that town said that at least once a year, drugs were burnt in the village by employees from the Health Ministry so as to avoid some unscrupulous persons administering expired drugs to sick people.
Though it could not be readily confirmed whether the drugs were burnt by the Ministry of Health, the residents in the neighboring communities have appealed to health workers to always inform the communities about when and where they would be carrying out such practices so that the area does not result into a scene from the 1960's American movie, Helter-Skelter.
Meanwhile, it could be recalled that sometime in August of this year medical wastes were burnt around the same Parker Corner neighborhood which also caused pandemonium in the entire area, but after consultation with the relevant parties involved it is believed by the community that such would not reoccur.
A resident of the Parker Corner neighborhood, who chose to remain anonymous, summed it up when she said, "We are just coming from years of war, and we are still afraid, still tense and still skeptical that it could happen again."
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