Gov’t Incapable To Combat Drugs?

By Patrick Stephen Tokpah

Gbarnga, Bong County-The newly assigned Commander Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA) in Bong County is admonishing citizens of the County to cooperate with the entity in diminishing illicit drug traffickers in the County.

The Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA) is a semi-autonomous agency under the supervisory authority of the Ministry of Justice, responsible for effective and efficient enforcement of laws about controlled drugs, substances, and precursors, including essential chemicals.

LDEA plays a drug-crime-focused role in national law enforcement. The Agency implements measures to protect the territorial borders of Liberia from the importation and exportation of drugs and controlled substances.

Speaking in an interview with journalists at the LDEA local office in Gbarnga, Bong County April 11, 2022, Commander Thomas Saye said the LDEA is most proactive and the leading Drug Law Enforcement Agency through the provision of effective and efficient services to Liberians by cutting off the supply of illicit drugs, reducing demand for illicit drugs and other substances of abuse, tracing and recovering drug-related proceeds and contributing to the creation and maintenance of an enviable image of Liberia throughout the world.

He said, the mandate of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency is to disrupt, dismantle, and eliminate all threats posed to the Republic of Liberia by illicit drug trafficking and abuse.

But till date, they cannot succeed in the fight of eliminating drugs in Liberia if citizens are not willing to cooperate with the agency.

“The reason we are calling for the citizen’s cooperation is that they live in the Community where these illicit drug traffickers are, and we want them to feed us with information, because drugs is damaging the younger generation of our Country,” Commander Saye revealed.

Even though the Bong County LDEA Commander is calling for citizens’ cooperation with the entity, he at the same time revealed that he will deploy his manpower at its disposal for a complete purge of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; suppression of demand for illicit drugs and other substances of abuse in the County.

“We as LDEA officers’ are under the obligation to protect, enhance and maintain the image of Liberia and Liberians in the diaspora against drugs,” he noted.