Jetty’s SRC Former Workers And Weala Residents Decry Human Rights Violations, Witch Hunting And Bad Labor Practices

Ramsey N Singbeh, Jr

director@news.throngtalk.com

+231772641146 / 880147358

Residents of Weala and its surrounding towns and villages including former workers of the Salala Rubber Corporation or SRC in Margibi County have expressed very serious disappointments about the ways in which they have been allegedly maltreated and devastated by state security and private security officers providing security services for Mr Jetty and his investments (SRC and the Jetty Rubber LLC) in the area.

Dr Upjit Singh Sachdeva, popularly known in Liberia as Mr. Jetty is now the owner of SRC after it was sold to him, he had already built the Jetty Rubber LLC in the same vicinity before assuming the ownership of the Salala Rubber Corporation or SRC. He possessed the company in 2024.

The citizens complained to two of the leaders of Margibi including Senator James Emmanuel Nuquay and Representative Clarence G Gahr in a recent meeting several different issues hampering their well-being which they say are done in favor of Mr. Jetty.  

 Their complaints were centered on bad labor practices, human rights violations, damaging of their houses, unemployment for most of them and witch hunts against them, all associated to Mr. Jetty, the Indian Investor and the Government of Liberia through the Liberia National Police and private security personnel providing security services for him and the companies.

As a result of a barrage of complaints and cries form the residents to these leaders about the company (SRC), coupled with issues that have landed some of the prominent residents in jail, they (Senator Nuquay and Representative Gahr) called out a mass meeting to ascertain what the real issues are that are up to presence causing unwarranted situations in the area both against the SRC and the residents as it is being reported.

The meeting was held in the Weala Public School auditorium recently, bringing together, the lawmakers, aggrieved citizens, chiefs and elders, workers and former workers of SRC, the Deputy Inspector General for operations of the Liberia National Police or LNP, Cllr Jallah Nelson Freeman who is also known as 102 by the police codding and many other people who have interest this matter.

They said these things started happening to them immediately after Mr. Jetty took over the SRC, following the establishment of the Jetty Rubber LLC in the same area under his control.

Representative Gahr and Senator Nuquay, both are sons of Weala. Senator Nuquay pleaded with Mr. Jetty to take his company, Jetty Rubber LLC to Weala at the time Mr Jetty sought out suitable place for his investment, while Representative Gahr remains the district representative of Margibi County District #:5 which hosts SRC and the Jetty Rubber LLC.

Senator Nuquay has repeatedly said that he encouraged Mr. Jetty to take the investment to Weala considering that it would create some forms of relief and job opportunities for the people in that region.

He also offered his official residence in Weala at the time to create logging for Mr Jetty who had issue with residential area when he initially took the investment to Weala.

This is one of the reasons why many people in the area are of the belief that the Jetty Rubber LLC is owned by Dr Upjit Singh Sachdeva or Mr. Jetty and the Margibi County Senator James Emmanuel Nuquay.

 While it is an undeniable reality that Mr. Jetty’s companies are creating some level of employment opportunities and livelihoods for some of the people in that region of Margibi County and Liberia, there are also vices that continue to bring about heated uneasiness between him (Mr Jetty) and the locals in the area.

Our investigation uncovered that Mr. Jetty took over the Salala Rubber Corporation and laid off many of the top black guys with a claim that they were in a click that caused problems for the company and that their actions have over the years marginalized the ordinary people whose living standard he claims to want to uplift, mainly workers of the SRC.

Though Mr. Ajit Kumar, SRC General Manager was a part of the past management team, as an Indian or kinsman to Mr Jetty, many believes that he was maintained on the job from that perspective.

Mr. Jetty is also reported to be paying many of the workers less than the salaries they earned during the past management of SRC. Many of the residents in the recent meeting said that workers under Mr. Jetty are not allowed to carry their phones, belts and face caps to work.

Dr. Upjit Singh Sachdeva a.k.a MR. Jetty, The Owner Of SRC And Jetty Rubber LLC

They reported that those of them in most of the villages and towns who had the opportunity to work with SRC in the past are out of jobs for now but they are always being seriously embarrassed and further avoided from doing anything else even if they were not on the premises of SRC.

Our reporter says before entering the SRC Plantation in Massaquoi Town located in the Cinta Township of Margibi District #: 5, Mr. Jetty planted a sign board issuing warning against taking pictures in the plantation that have over the years given people the opportunity to take pictures and do videos.

One extremely disappointed resident in the area speaking on anonymity remarked that Mr. Jetty may be having some terrible things going on for which he does not want to be on record for before he probably be exposed.

During the recent meeting with the lawmakers, Apostle Lusher Johnson of Weala recounted that the heavy equipment and vehicles used by Mr. Jetty in the area is seriously damaging their houses, especially those of them living closed to the road are experiencing cracks in their houses. He also lamented about the issue of dust taking over them even in their bedrooms.

According to him, many days they wake up from bed very dusty. He added that most of their houses built with mud and stakes can normally be shaking due to the vibration from Mr. Jetty’s very heavy moving objects.

Apostle Lusher S Johnson

During that meeting, the people were allowed to freely and openly speak their minds on issues that are affecting them which they also claimed are orchestrated by the police, private security personnel and Mr. Jetty.

Almost all of the people who spoke during the meeting explained so many different things that are seriously confronting their well-being and they link the Indian Investor.

They narrated that they are denied from doing any work in the bushes of their villages and towns that are adjacent to SRC even if it is what they have done over years and survived before Jetty’s presence in the area.

Many of them said some of the prominent people are being imprisoned by Mr. Jetty so they pleaded with the lawmakers assist them in releasing the citizens.

Some of them said though they don’t work with the company and they do not bother the company, but while doing their farming and other sustainable jobs to keep their family moving on, the police officers and company’s security personnel at SRC go after them, undermine their efforts by getting rate of everything.

Others stated that they are being witch-hunted and threatened to be jailed by Mr. Jetty, though he dismissed them when he took over the operations of SRC after he purchased the company.

Some of them even spoke that they are completely living in fear and have fled Weala because Mr. Jetty is in search of them to be incarcerated because they succeeded in doing some establishments for themselves over the years when they worked with the SRC before he took over.

They claimed that he is angry and accusing them of being responsible for some of the problems the company faced financially because he thinks their incomes cannot commensurate with their establishments.

One of the persons in this category is Mr. Cyrus S Johnny who is the former superintendent of the SRC School System and now owner of the Golden Kids International School in Weala.

Mr. Johnny who explained his situation with disappointment said he currently lives out of Weala in hiding in fear of being arrested and jailed on the order of Mr. Jetty. He said his intelligence told him that Mr. Jetty wonders how he got the money to build a school of his own and due to this, he is a target.

According to him, he escaped because when people are arrested for issues related to Mr. Jetty, they are taken to prison without investigation and charges with huge financial burdens levied against them.

He added that before he went to the meeting in Weala, he was guaranteed by Representative Clarence G Gahr who drove him in his vehicle to Weala before he was relieved of the fear of being arrested by the security personnel in the area.

He named some other individuals who are prominent sons of the area who were sacked by Mr. Jetty but are still being allegedly witch-hunted by him including Mr. Lester Sulonteh, Mr Robert Yoryor and Mr. Emmanuel Saye.

Mr. Cyrus Johnny

Another person, T. Harrison Korsor of Baypolue Town, a central town for many towns and villages around the SRC Plantation stated that they are now living in fear due to the presence of armed police men roaming all over the place.

Though he appreciated Mr. Jetty for carrying the investments in that region, he also noted that there are nearly 100 of armed police officers in the area now, calling on the county legislative caucus through Senator Nuquay and Representative Gahr to talk to Mr. Jetty to reduce the number of armed men under his control in the area.

He maintained that this has never been the case. According to Mr. Korsor, when these men ask someone a question upon seeing them, if the person does not give an answer they expect, they usually grab the person and have him or her thrown in their vehicle and taken away.

He continued that when individuals are placed in that security vehicle, such person is treated like a criminal. These days, he noted, people are straight away sent to Saw Beach Prison in Monrovia instead of Carter High in Kakaka.

T. Harrison Korsor

Martha Vesselee, another resident of Weala said the presence of Mr. Jetty in the area has caused hatred amongst them to an extent that they don’t easily speak mentioning Mr. Jetty’s name or SRC because individuals are planted to secretly record and report people speaking against Mr. Jetty even if the issues are true.

She told the gathering that her sister was arrested by several armed police men and taken to the police depot in Weala but when they went around, the police told them that the case is related to Mr. Jetty so they were not taking it lightly.

In her explanation, she made mention of so many armed police officers barricading their house creating pandemonium in the community all in the name of arresting her sister, Mary Boimah.

Martha Vesselee

Mary Boimah is the former president of the Salala Agriculture Workers Union or SAWU accused of being connected to the arson attacks at SRC of recent under Mr. Jetty. She was imprisoned in 2024 when workers of the SRC under her stewardship carried on arson and looting against the company.

She was alleged of being one of the persons who encouraged the tappers to burn and loot the company assets, as well as attack officials of the company, this was done by some of the suspects in jail at the Kakaka Central Prison.

The SAWU Leader got released but following the recent burning, the Government of Liberia rearrested her along with others through the involvement of the Margibi County Attorney Deddeh Wilson as suspect. There was also another person, Mr. Harris B F Nyumah accused, arrested and incarcerated on account of being linked to the fire attack.

 Sojern, a youth leader of the SRC Clusters said the security caused a man to roll in a thorny grass because he was accused of destroying the rubber.

Towns and villages in the regions of SRC were regionalized into clusters that worked through their leadership pushing their plats to the SRC Management then.

All the following, Sojern noted are completely cut off by Mr Jetty.

He wondered how many of the residents living in towns do and villages who don’t work with the company and are denied from carried on their normal hustles survive.

Sojern

An old lady who lives in one of the villages around the SRC disclosed that the company gave them a boundary of 25 feet from the rubber as a demarcation but she further considered 30 feet away from the rubber to burn her cha-coal.

Before building her oven, in her explanation, she assured the company that if just a single leave of the rubber is destroyed by the fire from her oven, she must be made to pay.

While at her oven at one point in time, the armed police officers arrived and destroyed the whole oven with claim that the oven will damage the rubber.

She said she asked them who would be responsible if fire got in the plantation because they scattered her entire oven that already had fire in it especially in dry grasses connected to the

Plantation.

That same day, she elaborated that she was arrested during the night hours and thrown into the police withholding cell in Weala following some maltreatment.

 She said if the company cannot create jobs for them, there is no need for their lives to be miserable all in the name of protecting this company.

When he took the stage to make a remark, Cllr Jallah Nelson Freeman who is the Deputy Inspector General for operations of the Liberia National Police tried to appease the situation.

He told the residents that he would have taken time to talk to his officers on the matter. He clarified that the government initially assigned five armed police officers to Mr. Jetty but later increased the number to fifteen when situations started arising at the plantation.

He called on them to denounce violence and further said as a man responsible for manpower deployment, he did not send around a hundred men as reported by some of the people in Weala.

He told them that in as much as violence situations continue to erupt in the area, he will increase the presence of police officers. He said the name of Weala has been in the news for so long for many wrong reasons.

According to him, most of the people in that area are members of the Kpelleh Tribe and Kpelleh people are peaceful.

Cllr Jallah Nelson Freeman, Police 102

Senator Nuquay and Representative Gahr both explained how they made efforts behind the scenes to release some of the individuals but they got rearrested by government.

They also called on the citizens to refrain from violence as they were going to have a conversation with Mr. Jetty to release the others that are currently in jail.

(In the Middle) Senator Nuquay And Representative Gahr At The Meeting

Also speaking in a recent meeting in Weala, Mr. Jetty said he has his right to employ whoever he wants to work with. He also explained how he is doing everything possible to give a better life for the people in the area contrary to all the allegations made against him.

Mr. Jetty

In a related development, there have been some situations of fire in the SRC Plantation of recent. Some blamed on Individuals’ deliberate acts in and some reported to be done out of mistakes.

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