By Solomon T. Gaye, Sr.
The Human Resource Manager of the Cocopa Rubber Plantation, Gondah Nenwah, has been reportedly flogged by the Police Support Unit (PSU) deployed in Nimba County.
Speaking to this paper over the weekend, the HR explained that the PSU flogged him at his private residence on the Plantation during the recent riot staged by some aggrieved workers.
According to Gondah, the officer entered his home without any search warrant, brought him out and flogged him while other senior officers stood ajar.
“I was hiding in my house for fear of being attacked by the aggrieved workers but the PSU officers who I thought came to rescue me, flogged me instead,” Gondah explained.
During the beginning of February 2023, aggrieved workers of the Cocopa Rubber Plantation blocked the main Saclepea Highway and other entries leading to the plantation in demand of salary arrears, rice, coupled with other benefits. The aggrieved workers disclosed that their action to have barricaded the road was a wake-up call for the government to intervene for workers to get their wages.
Since the beginning of 2023, cordial working relationship among workers and the company’s administration began worsening over the latter’s alleged refusal to settle workers’ salary on time.
Also, since 2022, teachers at the Cocopa School System, health workers and the security have not been paid for more than 18 months and that has created serious hardship on the staff.
Since the riot at the plantation followed by the intervention of the PSU to restore calm, report circulating in Cocopa says many of the camps were deserted by the workers for fear of being arrested by the Police in connection to the recent riot.
Speaking on the same issue, the aggrieved workers explained further that the company’s Manager, Harrison Karngbay, no longer resides on the plantation and that his whereabouts is unknown.
Cocopa Rubber Plantation is among several government plantations that are catering to over thousands of rubber tappers and residents in Nimba County.
When contacted via mobile phone, the LNP County Commander, Augustine Wari, said he is not the spokesman for the Police or the PSU.
