A member of the erstwhile National Iron Ore Company (NIOC) workers group is reported to have recently committed suicide in Mano River, Bomi County, at the concession area where the company previously operated prior to its shutdown on March 31, 1985 in Liberia.
Karmon Gbendy, who had diligently worked for the defunct mining company (NIOC) within the Sample Department (Badge#7009), according to James T. Mafarlon, General Chairman of the Former Employees of NIOC, committed suicide in protest of the government’s failure to settle their severance pay and benefits owed them following the takeover of the concession area by Western Cluster.
According to Mafarlon, the late Gbendy, in frustration of the GoL reneging to pay their severance pay and benefits coupled with the appalling condition in which the former NIOC workers are grappling with, sealed himself up in his room for days, thereby starving himself to death. His decomposed corpse was discovered by family members and citizens of the locale.
He told the Hot Pepper that the late Karmon Gbendy, a father of several children and dependents, has since been laid to rest in Mano River.
The Former NIOC Employees General Chairman was quick to add that before Gbendy took his precious life he wrote these few lines:
“Dear Mr. Mafarlon, thank you for running after our money business. God will bless you and your children forever and all my fellow former workers of NIOC until our benefits and severance pay are settled by the Liberian government. But, since President Weah and Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe feel we do not have use for our money, so they ate our money and we are suffering here in Mano River… Mr. Mafarlon leave them; let them eat my money. But they will meet me in front. Goodbye, Mr. Mafarlon. God will continue to bless you and family in your tireless fight for our just money and benefits. Goodbye once again. That me, Karmon Gbendy, Sample Department (Badge#7009), National Iron Ore Company.”
Meanwhile, over two hundred (200) former employees of the defunct National Iron Ore Company (NIOC) gathered in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, on Sunday, June 5, 2023 to finally conclude on their peaceful protest march, slated for June 19.
The General Chairman of the Former NIOC Employees, James T. Mfarlon, hinted that at the said gathering it was finally resolved that their peaceful protest with placards will go on as planned in front of the Executive Mansion, onward to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning as well as to the American embassy, where a position statement, in demand of their severance pay and benefits, will be read and presented to authorities there—since their request for a dialogue with government has failed.
He recalled that the Government of Liberia (GOL), under the signature of the then Minister of Finance and now a presidential hopeful at the October 10, 2023 general and presidential elections, Dr. Nathaniel Barnes, in 2001 gave the 1,820 former workers a guarantee promissory document that, since GoL owned 85% share in NIOC they would pay them all benefits, including severance pay, in the event where a successor company takes over the operation of the NIOC.
He further revealed that in 2011 Western Cluster took over the mining operations of both with an upfront payment of US$40.5 million to enable GoL to settle the issue of the former NIOC employees’ benefits and severance pay in order for its operation in the mining area to be unmolested.
“But on the contrary,” the Former NIOC Employees General Chairman indicated,” the Liberian government misdirected that money to other purposes during the administration of former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, without any justifiable reason.”
He voiced that, in the wake of persistent calls on government, “the Former NIOC Employees through our leadership was asked to put in our legitimate claims in writing through the General Auditing Commission (GAC). This was done since March 2022, when the GAC Audited the payroll of the former workers and same was passed on to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning between June or July 2022 for payment. But up to present there has been no redress of our plight”.
In the same vein, he explained that earlier on, in January 2023, President Weah in his nationwide speech made the Liberian people to understand that all domestic debts had been paid or settled, but Mafarlon says he differs with this portion of the President’s assertion in that what was placed in the Chief Executive’s address to the nation was false, misleading and far from the truth.
Mafarlon continued, “We are a group of companies including NIOC, Goodrich Plantation, Timber Union, Firestone and others that government still owes, and we are all tirelessly roaming the streets over the power-that-be’s failure to pay us our just and hard-earned monies.”
Referencing the January 31 edition of The News, Mafarlon said Western Cluster Iron Ore Company broke the silence through the then Superintendent of Bomi County, Samuel Brown, when he told the whole nation that from 2011 to now Western Cluster has invested approximately US$300 million, including all mining rights.
Additionally, Mafarlon quoted The News as saying that Western Cluster has given US$15.5 million to GoL for community development for Bomi, Cape Mount and Gbarpolu counties, and yet the government continues to renege on paying their severance pay and benefits, in the tune of a little over US$30 million, and that after hearing that all of these monies were paid to government but it continues to make fruitless efforts in paying the NIOC former workers their benefits and salary arrears prompted Karmon Gbendy’s suicide in Mano River.
Predicated upon the delays and failure of the Liberian government to make good its promises to pay the former NIOC employees benefits and severance pay, James T. Mafarlon said they have resolved to stage a peaceful march on June 19, 2023 in Monrovia and in Mano River to bear pressure on government “if it fails to call us for dialogue”.