PCC Garbage Collectors Brutal Attacked

Some residents of Kende Town Community on the Roberts International Airport (RIA) Highway on Wednesday, August 18, 2021, showed their “thuggish nature” when they attacked and inflicted bodily wounds on three employees of the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC), who were carrying out their routine waste management protocols enforcement in the area.

The employees, who come from the PCC’s Waste Management Department, were attacked while conducting their normal garbage collection along the RIA route — with two, Aminata Konneh and Emmanuel Dahn, sustaining serious injuries, the PCC said in a statement on Thursday. 

The city authority said the two victims encountered a man who is yet to be identified dumping garbage at an illegal dumping site that was just cleaned. The unidentified man became violent when he was approached to explain why he was dumping waste at the site, especially at a time when the area, which is not a designated dumping site, had been cleaned by the PCC team few minutes earlier.

“The man, without any justifiable reason, began beating us and was later joined by some members of the community,” Aminata narrated, with blood oozing from her scalp. 

According to a PCC release, Aminata and Emmanuel were beaten with shovels and sticks with nails attached — leading to severe bodily injuries. “The beating and subsequent injuries of our employees undermine the effort to clean garbage in the City,” the release noted. The Paynesville City government has described the act of Kende Town Community residents as “thuggish”, with the propensity to instill fear in workers of the City Corporation.

“It is frustrating and dangerous that some individuals will choose to circumvent the cleanliness of the community that is being made unhygienic by them,” the PCC said. 

The Paynesville City Police has since arrested seven people in connection to the incident. Following Paynesville City Police preliminary investigation, Tonny Moses, Alfred Tokpah, Patrick Scott and Alex Dah-yah were arrested for aggravated assault, while Kemah Weah, Samuel T. Smith, and Bendu Smith were arrested for obstruction. They were later turned over to the Zone Five Base of the LNP for further investigation before court proceedings.