MONROVIA – Police authorities in Monrovia have announced that an officer of the Liberia National Police (LNP) has been disrobed and dismissed, while two other LNP officers have been banned from further doing police work pending investigation.
Police IG, Gregory Coleman, told a press conference Monday that the LNP had with immediate effect dismissed one of its officers, Sansee C. Massaquoi, and interdicted two others for impropriety and gross misconduct.
Coleman divulged that during the evening hours of Saturday, 12 October 2024, dismissed LNP officer Sansee C. Massaquoi, and another officer of the LNP, Patrolmen Augustine Ben, criminally entered the hotel room of Nguyah Dean and Levan Tu, two Vietnamese nationals, at the Luxury Hotel in Thinkers Village, arrested the pair without probable cause, confiscated from them US$24,000, and took them to the Headquarters of the Liberia National Police.
Once at the Capitol Hill, Monrovia Headquarters of the LNP, the two businessmen were turned over to a superior officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sam Gballah, bearing code-name R2, who allegedly intimidated the Vietnamese and threatened to take mug shots of them.
A mug shot, also informally referred to as a police photograph or booking photograph, is a photographic portrait of a person from the shoulders up, typically taken after a person is placed under arrest. The primary purpose of a mug shot is to allow law enforcement to have a photographic record of an arrested individual, enabling identification by victims, the public, and investigators.
Additionally, Coleman revealed that the dismissed officer has been under indefinite suspension since 2018, for theft of property.
Police IG Coleman used the occasion to assure members of the public about the LNP’s resolve not to tolerate any form of criminality by officers of the force on his watch.
Meanwhile, Gballah (R-2) and Patrolman Augustine Ben (cyber) have been interdicted and forwarded to the Professional Standards Division (PSD), for investigation by the Police Act, an LNP statement released to the press yesterday, revealed.
Edited by Olando Testimony Zeongar.
