President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s quest to deal with the problem of drugs and subsequently quash it out of Liberia, appears to be a waste of time and resources as the officials responsible to lead the war are fighting among themselves, thus undermining every effort being made the Liberian Chief Executive.
Since Abraham Kromah, Director General and Al Hassan Fadiga, Deputy Director General for Operations were appointed at the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA), there has been no peace and coordination.
The ‘bad blood’ between the two men started in April this year when they almost threw blows at each other on claims that Kromah mandated all officers not to take instruction from Fadiga, an order which Fadiga termed as an affront.
Director Kromah has always claimed that Fadiga was bent on disrespecting him in the presence of subordinates, something he said will not be tolerated under his watch.
However, a team of advisors from the office of President Boakai intervened but it seems that the intervention has fallen on deaf ears with both men still at each other’s throat.
On Monday, June 3, 2024, the noise resumed with Kromah making several claims but Fadida has released counter-claim and rebuffed Kromah’s allegations.
Addressing a press conference, Director Kromah alleged that Fadiga was brandishing weapons at the headquarters of the LDEA and using pepper spray. But this paper has learnt that the usage of pepper spray came after men loyal to Kromah disarmed Fadiga and took away some personal belongings.
He told newsmen that it is regrettable that the same people he personally incorporated are fighting him.
The LDEA boss indicated that he thought that they could work together and correct some of the shortcomings at the LDEA and move on but it seems not to be possible.
“They have to put up the attitude to fight against drugs and not focusing on the feelings of those who are hurt,” stressing that if his deputy or anyone else has problems with him, they should be professional to reach out to him,” Kromah said.
Kromah indicated that the same Fadiga that told the Liberian people that there is a new drug called “Zombie”, is the same man telling the public that there is no Zombie in the country.
He frowned that the attitude of Fadiga is disheartening. “He has no right to give the public misinformation. He is on record and the public is my witness.”
Contrary to Kromah’s widespread claims, Deputy Director Fadiga took to his official Facebook page in these words “In response to the claims made by director Kromah during a recent press conference, I would like to clarify that I did not brandish any weapon. As a seasoned law enforcement professional with over a decade of experience, it is against my principles to engage in such behavior. However, I was unfortunately attacked by Ab-Kromah’s thugs.”
Fadiga explained that during the assault on him, Kromah’s personal security, who are “notorious ex-rebel fighters from ULIMO-K,” unexpectedly took hold of his firearm, while another ex-rebel general named Keita restrained him.
“They further restricted my movement and subjected me to assault in the director’s office. Additionally, they confiscated three of my phones. Fortunately, one of my phones, an iPhone 15 Pro-max, had recorded the entire incident without their knowledge. Unfortunately, they deleted the recording when they realized its existence,” Fadiga said.
Nevertheless, the LDEA Director for Operations disclosed that he was able to retrieve the video from his backup account, which they couldn’t access due to its face recognition feature.
Fadiga noted that he firmly believes the truth will be revealed in due time, and he will be vindicated.
Expanding on Sport Talk late Monday, Fadiga alleged that Kromah is operating a “drug cartel” that is why he is skeptical and afraid that it will be broken.
With the ongoing in-fighting at the LDEA, President Boakai’s mission to crackdown on drug users and dealers remains to be seen.
On January 29, 2024 when he presented the state of the nation to the 55th Legislature, the President declared drugs as a public health emergency and ordered that all officials do a drug test.
The fight against drugs is yet another farce as disagreement among leaders at LDEA deepens.
Sources informed this paper that the President will take a decision on the situation at LDEA shortly to continue his fight on drugs.
Let’s be patriotism. The only country we have is Liberia. So, let’s Ab and his DO stand for our country as we trusted them. Let me very Frank to nation, the two people may have inner conflict because I didn’t see any cause of what they are doing.
Let’s be patriotism. The only country we have is Liberia. So, let’s Ab and his DO stand for our country as we trusted them. Let me very Frank to nation, the two people may have inner conflict because I didn’t see any cause of what they are doing. I know that Ab is capable of fighting drugs out of our country but uder the roof of conflicts, he will fail. So let’s the president intervention take place.