By: J. Mason Kollie |Lofa County Correspondent
Voinjama city, Lofa County-Thursday, May 08, 2025-Business and shop owners in Lofa Countyhave accused that the Liberia National Fire service(LNFS); Lofa branch is collecting money from them in separate manner outside the official collection by the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA).
Speaking in separate interviews, the marketers complained that the Fire Service collects USD $20.00 for fire extinguisher and the payment is done via the LRA section, while the other payment is done to the Liberia National Fire service agents deployed on the field with the amount said to be USD$30.00 for “Fire Clearance”.
“We pay for these different services but we don’t see anything or we don’t get benefit as business people,” Patrick Fayia; a business owner in Voinjama said in an interview.
Another caller who participated on one of the popular talk shows in Voinjama on Radio Wologizi 87.9 FM said on “The Wologizi Morning Parade” that he was frustrated about the different collections from the Liberia National Fire service operations.
“My brother, we don’t understand how these guys doing their work. We pay our money, and we don’t see them fighting fire and we don’t even hear about their awareness in communities, only to collect money from us,” an angry market personal said in an interview with our reporter.
When contacted, authority from the Liberia National Fire service in Voinjama city confirmed the collection but didn’t explain about the extra money collected by the Fire service in their account.
“What we normally do is to issue you information to do payment at the LRA if you failed in providing your business with a fire extinguisher,” an official of the Fire service said.
The Chief operation at the Fire service name withheld said, “Yes we collect USD $30.00 fees for fire Clarence but this not collected by the LRA,” he indicated.
During our investigation, it’s was established that the Liberia National Fire service been doing this since a decade but the community is not benefiting from their Work as fire fighters.
“So what are we paying the money for, when you have fire outbreak, what do they do to cut off the fire for example, the payment of the money is of no use,” said Falo Balloh; a popular business told our in an interview.
As result of the present situation, the business community is calling on the Liberia National Fire service senior leadership and the Ministry of Justice to provide more education to the public about their collections and expenditures especially to they the business community in the County “Because they are tired paying money that have remained unaccounted for”.
Edited: Jesefu Morris Keita| Editor-In-Chief
