By Joel Cholo Brooks In Barclayville City*
After nearly 18 hours of rough ride by road, taken all the necessary ‘shortcuts’ with the hope of reaching our destination at a soonest possible time, instead of this, the ‘shortcuts’ turned to ‘long cuts’ a situation which ended us to Pleebo, Maryland County instead of Sinoe County as was previously agreed.
Despite all of the difficulties we encountered on these roads from Grand Bassa County to Rivergee County we were opportune to reach the vision of the ‘Bad Road Medicine’, meaning that roads from Fish Town, Rivergee County to Pleebo, Maryland were perfectly paved as we smoothly drove on.
This eventually made us to reach Pleebo safely, of course we again began the less rough ride to the City of Barclayville, the center where this year’s historic World Press Freedom Day activities are been rolled out. The mean event is scheduled to take place on Monday, May 3rd, 2021. The GNN exclusively spoke to the Mayor of the host City Barclayville where he writes from:
We arrived in the well situated City of Barclayville on Friday, April 30th, 2021 at precisely 6:45pm, after departing Monrovia on Thursday, April 29, 2021 at 4:16pm onboard the President of the Press Union of Liberia, Charles Coffey, Jr. vehicle donated by the Internews.
Mr. Coffey who arrived in the county earlier received our convoy of three vehicles loaded with journalists in this beautiful City of Barclayville, established in 1983, and has reportedly produced some of Liberia’s well educated men and women.
The Mayor of the City of Barclayville is Madam Benetor W. Blamo who exclusively, smartly and happily spoke to the GNN-Liberia on what she called ‘numerous challenges’ faced by her City, making specific reference of citizens’ refusal to always keep their environment clean.
Madam Blamo further indicated that although the City is short of enough employees to always keep the City clean, but however, regretted that those who have volunteered their services usually complained of the delay of their monthly stipends, and further noted that she is grateful to the Liberian leader, President George Manneh Weah for appointing her as the Mayor of the City of Barclayville, and vowed to always remain committed to her job.
Barclayville is the capital and most populous settlement in Grand Kru County, located in southeastern Liberia about 10 miles inland from Picinicess, according to 2008 national census conducted Liberia Institute of Statistics, the population at that time stood at 2,733. its straddles the banks of the Nu River.
Touring the entire City of Barclayville it was indeed interesting to glance are some of the buildings that are been used as government offices, even though this day was Saturday, when most them are closed to the public, but interestingly one of the local radio stations, Radio Ahteena was airing the arrival of members of the Press Union of Liberia, while the other, Voice of Grand Kru was noticed to be off the air due to what they Station Manager, Pastor J. Karway Suah described while chatting with this outlet as technical breakdown.
At the local police station, our staff was able to chat with the Deputy Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Johnson B. Dorkay who explained the support being received from the public regarding the protection of lives and properties in the County, and further bragged that the issue of crime rates has drastically reduced.
Today journalists in continuation of their stay in the County paid a field graciously paid filed visits at various locations in the County to ascertain the plight of the people, and publicly use their various platforms to inform the Liberian people at large.
Day two of our World Press Freedom Day in the County will tomorrow, Sunday, May 2, 2021 will witness a Sunday at a local Church in the City where dozens of journalists are expected to be in full attendance to pray for the successful holding of the day.
On Monday, which will be the final day in the County, the 3rd of May, 2021, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is also the County’s District two lawmaker will deliver the keynote address following a parade march by dozens of journalists from all over the country.
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