The Executive Protection Service has brazenly reacted to former President George M. Weah’s request for more EPS officers, stating that if Weah so desires more security protection he can hire private security guards as former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and then Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai did over the past six years.
In a press release issued Wednesday, March 20, 2024 and signed by the Media Officer of the EPS, Philip G. Moore, the EPS said, “We wish to clarify issues raised by some politicians and journalists in the media about the Executive Protection Service regarding EPS agents assigned to former President George Manneh Weah, and about those EPS agents whose services were terminated due to prolonged absence from work without leave (AWOL), thus showing no interest in the jobs.”
According to the release, “On the issue of former President Weah’s EPS bodyguards, there is no law in the book that [mandates] the EPS to provide bodyguards for former presidents, former vice presidents, etc., but it has been a longstanding tradition that the incumbent President usually authorizes security protection for those who had occupied the office before him or her.
“In keeping with that tradition, provision of security protection to the former president and former the vice president is automatic; it is not based on a request from the former, and the size of the detail or bodyguard corps assigned is determined by the EPS based on the threat level around said VIP.
“Secondly, the EPS has assigned several well-trained agents with long-term experience to former President Weah, meaning he is in safe hands. In Liberia’s recent history, he is the first former president who has received the biggest number of bodyguards. But if he so desires more security protection, he can hire private security guards, as former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and then Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai did over the past six years.”
Lastly, the release continued, on the issue of dismissed and resigned agents, almost all the agents who were terminated have not reported to work since January 2024. “Information received by the EPS indicates that most of them have left the country. Also, almost all those who resigned are abroad and have communicated their resignation from the job to the EPS Human Resource Department,” the EPS release observed.