The border town of Loguatuo in District 3 was over the weekend a spectacular scene witnessed by inhabitants there, when an alleged attempted arson attack on the Liberia Immigration Service Sub office in Nimba County took place.
Speaking to this paper in Loguatuo, Madam Rebecca Dahn, sister of one Isaac Dahn, explained that on Friday, January 20, 2023, LIS Border Patrol Officer, Robert Budy several times hit her brother Isaac Dahn with his (Budy) gun and wounded him, thereby leaving him in a pool of blood.
Madam Dahn explained that her brother was coming from Ivory Coast at about 5:30 p.m. and was denied entry by Commissioner Budy on grounds that the border was already closed and nobody was allowed to enter.
“My brother was trying to enter and he started hitting him with the gun and wounded him,” she explained.
This is the second allegation linking the LIS border patrol in less than a month in the county.
During the December 2022 Christmas season, LIS border patrol assigned in the border town in Gborplay disrupted the Census exercise with heavy shooting which caused hundreds of residents to flee and sought refuge in the bushes and villages along the river belt in the district.
The shooting led to the deployment of soldiers along the borderline by the Ivorian government respectively.
Oldman Peter Biah also alleged that Budy hit and wounded the young man for refusing to pay ‘gate drop’ before crossing the border while elder George Sahn spoke of the alleged misuse of firearms by LIS border patrol officers against peaceful citizens in that part of the county.
According to the Chief Elder, the alleged harassment of peaceful citizens coupled with extortion of monies from travelers in the name of ‘dropping gate’ is very rampant at every border point in Nimba County and that this kind of attitude exhibited by some of the LIS Officers assigned at the various points of entry does not in any way augur well.
The Chief Elder lamented that Budy boasted that noting will come out of the case on grounds that the LIS Commissioner is his uncle.
When this paper contacted LIS border patrol Commander via mobile phone, he refused to speak on grounds that he is not in the know of such issue, but when the LIS General Commander, Yei Dolopaye was also contacted via mobile phone, she confirmed that the case is before the LIS Central Office in Monrovia.
She further disclosed that Isaac Dahn is undergoing medical treatment in the county but remained tight-lipped over the whereabouts of Budy.
