SOCIETY

Armed Robbers Terrorize Frog Island Community

By Bill E. Diggs

The Frog Island Community in Paynesville suffers series of alleged armed robbery during the early morning hours of Tuesday, May 26, 2009, in which at least five persons were injured.
According to residents of the community, the alleged robbers attacked three homes at about 2:00 a.m., Tuesday morning and also made away with money and other valuables.
Agnes Vojolo, one of the injured victims, told the Daily Observer about her horrible encounter with Paynesville communities’ greatest nightmare.

“It was about 2:00 a.m. this morning, when I heard a car sound,” she narrated. “Then I heard a sound that was as if gun, but I was not sure where it was coming from. Few minutes later, our door burst open and about five men armed with cutlasses and firearms rush into the house asking for money and cell phones. They could be more; I had no chance to count them.”

She added that the alleged robbers enter and ransacked her room then snatch her nursing baby away threatening to kill him if she did not relinquish the money she had.
“I appealed with them that the only money I had was L$560. I told them to take it and give me back my baby, but they refused and slapped me in the face as they threw my baby far on the bed,” she said with agony.

Mrs. vojolo displayed her back which was inhumanely covered with prints of machete. She further narrated that her husband, Henry Vojolo, was hacked on the head when he tried to defend his family.

According to Mrs. Vojolo, the robbers left their home after they have accumulated her husband wallet and his cell phone [Nokia 1200]. She said all the while the robbers were at their home, they were masked and communicating over radio.
Not more then 250 feet away from Mrs. Vojolo’s Home, Caroline, a woman in the house where two men identify as Mr. Jallah and Emmanuel was injured also on the head, explained the cruel scene she witness.

“We were not totally asleep when the robbers came. Mr. Jallah though it was ordinary thieves, so he made noise to frighten them away. The robbers then broke into the house and demanded we give them all our values and money. Before Emmanuel could say any thing they hit his head with cutlass and did also to Mr. Jallah after they took one camera phone [model unknown] and one Nokia, and money that I did not know the total,” she stated.

A little distance away from Caroline’s home, one Koba Johnson, another victim, told this reporter the pitiful story of her 60 years mother who head was bashed with a stick.

She elaborated that robbers broke into their home and started to search the house asking them for money and valuables. She added that her mother raised alarm and the robbers hit her head to shout her up.

“I advice my mother to give them the money she had to avoid their reactions if we insist. It was about L$35,000 for our building project,” she said.
When asked whether the police when to the area, she said the police arrived on the scene after the robbers have left.

Speaking to other residents, one Julia Freeman acknowledged that this is not the first time for robbery to occur in their community. She said that they are living only by the grace of God because they are vulnerable to armed robbers.
Another resident, Paul Jones, expressed his fear that incidence such as these would continue if drastic action is no put in to place.

When contacted as to whether any arrest was made, the Liberian National Police (LNP) Chief of Press and Public Affairs, George Bardue, said that the police have been responding to many robbery incidence in Paynesville as well as other communities.

He averred that the police often face difficulties to arrest alleged robbers on the scene of the robbery because the robbers often escape before they get there.

However, he added that the police usually conduct vigorous search for the alleged robbers and sometimes make arrest.