Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) Deputy Commissioner General for Naturalization Atty. Asatu Bah - Kenneth says less fortunate folks, also called zogoes, are being used as killers and to cause violence here.
She told a cross-session of women over the weekend in Monrovia that if the situation is not arrested, zogoes could be used to spark Liberia's next crisis.
"I see us going right back to our dark days because we have our less fortunate children in the street and we point to them as our giants when anything happens," said Atty. Bah - Kenneh.
"We can say I'm going [to] call my zogoes on you. We are using them now to cause violence and killers in the country," she noted during the meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
But the deputy Immigration chief wondered if people were not ashamed of using zogoes to cause violence "when we have the responsibility to guide and protect them."
She predicted a recurrence of Liberia's civil unrest if the citizens failed to join hands to arrest the situation of zogoes across the country.
She believes that if nothing is done about zogoes, a lot of them will continue to be used to cause violence across the country.
The deputy immigration chief cautioned against publicly insulting them because this will not change the situation.
She said most of those called zogoes belong to a family too, but they just find themselves in such a condition.
Atty. Bah - Kenneh observed that people often shame and accuse zogoes of wanting to steal their belongings.
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But she also noted that the same people would seek zogoes' assistance in their quest to cause violence.
"So, it's about time that we work with ourselves, children and community to look after them so that we can stop the violence in the country," she pleaded.
She called on Liberians to stop calling less fortunate folks zogoes and desist from using them to cause violence in the community.
She urged that everyone work together to help change zogoes' story so that they too can become good citizens again.
She noted that it's about time that Liberians think about how they can save themselves and their children from violence.
"Some of us do not have to come here and tell you how many of them we have changed. If some of us can do it by changing [them], mothers in here today, you can do it," said Atty. Bah - Kenneh.
To achieve this, Atty. Bah - Kenneh called on women to stand against ghettos in their various communities.
She thinks the establishment of ghettos is responsible for the violence and damaging the future of a lot of children.
