Deputy EPS Director Sacked for Assaulting a Woman

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has with immediate effect relieved of duty the Deputy Director for Operations of the Executive Protection Service (EPS), Darlington George, and directed him to report to the Ministry of Justice for investigation in the case of assault on Ms. Varnester Maday Kiatamba. If found wanting, he shall be sent to court for prosecution.

An Executive Mansion release issued late Monday, September 14, ordered that others involved in the fracas that are not EPS agents should also report to the Ministry of Justice.

The Executive Mansion said it "will not condone such an act of sheer indiscipline and total lack of morals on the part of any member of State security institutions especially the EPS, which has been subject to thorough psychological reform in order to give a human face to the public service they are entrusted to perform."

Meanwhile in an interview on Farbric Radio, Ms. Kiatamba explained that she was trying to settle a dispute between her friends who were fussing when Darlington George came very close to them with his vehicle, nearly hitting them. When she went to confront him about his offensive behavior, she said George began to use profane expressions at her and her friends, calling them "prostitutes", sources say.

Eyewitnesses narrate that Kiatamba returned a similar expletive concerning his mother, which infuriated the EPS Deputy who started "punching and kicking her... and ordered his bodyguard to hit her with a bottle in his hand."

She explained that Darlington George boasted that he is Ellen's son and "nothing can be done" to him for assaulting her. Just as he had ordered, the bodyguard immediately threw the bottle at her which wounded her face and she fell to the ground and fainted. (The story did not report how Ms. Kiatamba was rescued and who and where she received assistance afterward.)