Monrovia — Benthel Bureau of Investigation & Guard Service, a registered Private Security business, involved with Private Investigation and Security Guard Service has raised serious concerns over "widespread domestic unrest, and political violence" ahead of the 2023 general and presidential elections.
Benthel Bureau of Investigation and Security Guard Service Chief Executive Officer Benedict Mulbah Lavelah Sr., in a communication sent to FrontPage Africa, Sunday, July 17, noted that calls for civil war are common in fragile countries in Africa with 'authoritarian leaders' willing to unleash their 'pet security' services on dissidents and the civilian population in general.
Mr. Lavelah stressed that the Nature of the upcoming elections makes it vulnerable to a range of security threats against participants, infrastructure, and information materials.
As such he believes there should be proactive steps taken to strengthen the country's security sector.
Additionally, the Liberian Security Expert maintained that an effective election security analysis must be drawn on information and expertise from multiple areas.
He particularly wants the Ministry of Justice to speedily address all security gauges in the country against citizens, citing a recent problem that occurred with National Port Authority Managing Director, Bill Twehway and Seaport Security, which led to Mr. Twehway being invited for questioning as to why his security agency is carrying arms.
He noted that the act establishing the Seaport Security does not call for officers to carry a firearm.
"Currently our beloved country Liberia is about to experience the most likely security threats that may arise in this upcoming election year," Mr. Lavelah feared.
"An electoral process has consisted of complex series of interdependent sub-processes generically including bounty delimitation, civil education including security messages, voter education, and voter registration messages."
Furthermore, Lavelah maintained that circumstantial conditions of elections can alter quickly, requiring rapid re-prioritization or invalidation of initial security assumptions, therefore he believes, the analysis of security risks is a continuous task and is about to get very high in Liberia, especially in counties with low law-enforcement officers and a lack of vehicles to respond to crimes.
The Benthel Security CEO, a graduate of the Liberia National Police Training Academy and a former member of the first college graduates' program of Liberia National Police further called on the Ministry of Justice to prevent all current Law-Enforcement officers from operating private security businesses or compel them to resign before running their private security firms.
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The Benthel Security CEO is also requesting the Public Safety Division of the Ministry of Justice to investigate several private security firms, which he alleged, are not registered in the country and run by current law enforcement officers.
Lavelah also calls for the resignation of President George Weah National Security Advisor, on grounds that his "limitation to security matters" is creating serious security tensions that are yet to be addressed.
He also wants the office of the President to appoint a Youth Adviser to his office.
"Our fellow Liberians, it is time we all protect the peace, we all fight for; we need to report everything we see to our nearest Law enforcement officers," Mr. Lavelah noted.
Lavelah is also requesting political parties' leaders to pay for security clearances as being done by private security owners, while in the same way urging
Senators, representatives, and other officials abide by the laws and get clearances from the ministry of justice if they are hiring their securities.
