Liberia: CDC Lawmaker Wants Officials Tested for Drug

Gray believes a national drug test for officials is the way forward

Opposition parliamentarian Acarous Gray has challenged President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to subject her officials --- heads of ministries and agencies, especially those tasked with the responsibility to fight substance abuse, as well as personnel of the various security apparatus ---  to a national drug test. 

 Gray's call comes in the wake of reports that the head of Liberia's presidential police escort, Perry Dolo, was over the weekend caught using a presidential vehicle to smuggle drugs.

"If the head of the President's police escort can be caught transporting dangerous substances, I think security agents need to go through a drug test, starting with the hierarchy," the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC)  lawmaker said. Gray represents District #8 in Montserrado County.

 But the Executive Mansion in Monrovia has vehemently rejected  reports that a presidential vehicle was used to smuggle drugs.  The incident was reported to have occurred during the weekend when Joint Security forces arrested the man in charge of Liberia's presidential motorcade for allegedly using the lead convoy jeep "Police Escort" to transport 654 pounds of marijuana along the Liberia - Sierra Leone border.

Police Officer Perry Dolo and Cyrus Slewion of the Liberia National Police; a Sierra Leonean military officer; a businessman, a taxi driver, and an ex-military personnel, were all rounded-up early Saturday morning at the Tiene Checkpoint, along the Liberia-Sierra Leone border.

In a release issued in the nation's capital yesterday, the Liberian presidential palace explained that Officer Dolo "is not the Head of the Presidential Motorcade of the Liberian President, as was reported. The presidential motorcade, it said, is a combination of the various security vehicles, which is headed by the Executive Protective Service (EPS)".

"The vehicle marked “POLICE ESCORT,” which was reportedly being used by Police Officer Dolo to transport marijuana, was an escort vehicle which was decommissioned, returned to the Liberia National Police over two years ago, and replaced by a vehicle marked only as “PRESIDENTIAL ESCORT”. This vehicle is used by the police to control traffic ahead of the actual Presidential Motorcade," Presidential Press Secretary Jerolinmek Piah explained.

Meanwhile, the Executive Mansion has frowned on drug traffickers and instructed the Joint Security to increase its vigilance in bringing all drug dealers to book.