The National Civil Society Union of Liberia (NACSUL) says its attention has been starkly drawn to an allegation of theft of over 125,000 gallons of gasoline, which is indirectly being attributed to fault on the part of the Management of the Liberia Petroleum and Refinery Company (LPRC), headed by Marie Urey-Coleman, which has been published in several local dailies and broadcast entities.
In a press statement issued Tuesday, November 9, 2021, which is said to have been released after carrying out investigation into the matter for nearly two weeks, the President of the civil society organization, Amos B.S. Kanneh, said, “NACSUL is disturbed by this corrosive claim, which borders on the integrity and hard-earned reputation of LPRC Management, which has established for itself a reputable and enviable command of public respect and trust.”
According to Kanneh, “In an attempt to ascertain the fullest actualities and authenticity of this heartrending reportage, NACSUL has assessed document to the effect so far available to the public, and has realized, through deeply rooted inquiry, that a release from the Public Relations desk of the entity concerned, the Liberian Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC), dated October 26, 2021, has projected information to the contrary to the specific effect of rejecting media and police claims that there ever was an instance of late or anytime in the annals of the LPRC that such a theft of such nature, implicating and impugning officials of the corporation.
“In a troubling view of the above observation of NACSUL, NACSUL wishes to rubbish this diabolical project of character assassins who are usually treading public corridors ingrained with unfounded pieces of information and bent on maligning the reputation of people of public trust.”
Meanwhile, NACSUL used the medium to caution the Liberia National Police (LNP) to always do due diligence in matters of alleged theft before speaking publicly to same.
“It is the conclusion of our painstaking findings that the police, which is under legal and moral duty to conduct itself professionally, fell short of this standard and aired the matters appertaining this alleged gasoline theft at the LPRC without giving any iota of regards to the characters concerned. This practice on the part of the police is practically uncalled for, and we urge the police to retract any public statement it has made on this matter that supports the wrong and unfounded allegation.
“We herein caution media houses that have similarly treaded this path to revoke their ongoing reportage and make amends to the LPRC management, whose reputation has been tampered with by the act of unprofessional journalism. We now, therefore, call on the management of LPRC, which was wrongfully implicated and maligned by any and all misreporting of this matter, to remain focused on their normal professional and nationalistic duty at the LPRC, undistracted by the attempt of night time criminals of the pen who are bent on extortion at the expense of decent characters.
“Conclusively, we urge the LPRC management to take legal action against persons and entities airing this misinformation, as it is about their character, as a thing once damaged takes years to be reconstructed.”