No Foul Play Seen In Deaths Of Liberia Tax Officials

Autopsy reports released in Liberia on Tuesday show that the deaths of four tax and audit officials last month, which sparked outrage across the West African state, were likely accidental

Monrovia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Nov, 2020 ) :Autopsy reports released in Liberia on Tuesday show that the deaths of four tax and audit officials last month, which sparked outrage across the West African state, were likely accidental.

Three tax officials and one senior government auditor turned up dead in October, sparking rumours of a corruption-concealing assassination campaign in the nation of 4.8 million people.

Liberian President George Weah ordered an investigation in response, urging people not to spread rumours until the results were released.

On Tuesday, Liberia's justice ministry published a summary of police findings and post-mortem examinations, which mostly dispelled suspicions of foul play.

The first deaths involved two officials from the Liberia Revenue Authority, Albert Peters and Gifty Lama, who were found slumped over dead in a car parked in the capital Monrovia on October 2.

Pathologists found that the pair had died of carbon-monoxide poisoning due to a faulty exhaust system.

Another official at the tax-collection agency, George Fahnboto, died on October 4, when he lost control of his car and crashed into a house. An autopsy report concluded that he succumbed to serious head injuries.

Pathologists quoted in the report however did not rule out foul play in the fourth death, that of Emmanuel Nyeswa, the director general of Liberia's Internal Audit Agency, which scrutinises government spending.

He was found lying at the foot of his apartment building on the night of October 9 "with blood flowing from his left ear," according to the justice ministry report, and died the next day.

Whether the death was an accident, homicide or suicide "will require further police detective investigations," they said.

Liberia is a poor nation that is still recovering after back-to-back civil wars from 1989 to 2003, and West Africa's 2014-16 Ebola pandemic, which killed 4,800 people in the country.

It also suffers from soaring inflation and occasional shortages of fuel and banknotes.