The Liberia National children’s Representatives Forum, formerly Liberian Children’s Parliament, has condemned and rejected the Ministry of Gender and the Liberia National Police (LNP) Children Division’s report exonerating the former Director of the SOS Children Village, Augustine Allieu, alarming alleged foul in the report.
The group said they rejected the report because it is political and marked by conflict of interest, adding that they are demanding another DNA test to be conducted to verify the information.
The Liberia National Children Representative Forum is a child-led institution established by the Government of Liberia (GOL) by the 53rd National Legislature.
The aimed of the group is to advocate and lobby for the well-being of Liberian children across the country and to ensure that their rights are protected and not violated.
On September 3, 2022 the Ministry of Information, along with the Liberia National Police’s women and children division, denounced and exonerated the former SOS Director, Augustine Allieu, from the rape allegation brought against him after the DNA test was conducted.
But responding to the report in an interview with reporters in Monrovia on September 6, 2022, Joel U.K Gray, Speaker of the Liberia National Children Representative Forum, alleged that there was foul played during the conduct of the DNA test, which exonerated the SOS Children Village’s former director.
According to him, based upon that, they will not accept the report because it is marred by fraud, sentiment and missteps, which indicate that there is no justice for the poor.
“By the Government of Liberia inviting a different health institution (Jamale) to get involved only with the child and her mother and deny SOS of being part was very wrong, and it indicates foul. The LNP has always used the non-billable offense to arrest in our country, but since this case was reported they have changed and said, ‘report before arrest’, which is totally wrong and indicates conflict of interest,” Gray noted.
The young children advocate disclosed that the victim described the interior part of the house of the alleged perpetrator four months before the DNA test was conducted, but the LNP refused to do assessment on ground that the child was traumatized.
He continued that the LNP refused also to investigate the claim of the child until the Minister of Justice gives them a mandate to do so. Even though the victim described the house about 95%, they yet and still refused to conduct the investigation.
“We are strongly calling on the international community, Office of the First Lady of the Republic of Liberia and the Vice President of the Republic of Liberia for their kind intervention, as the Government of Liberia (GOL) has played foul in the results and tempered with the report. We are calling for a newly conducted swag on this matter, and the ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism should verify information before coming to the public,” the child advocate group observed.