- Nat Nyuan Bayjay
JENKINS SCOTT IS DEAD, BURIED: News of his death Friday, soon spread quickly to family members and friends as well as sympathizers who were probably expecting to get such news concerning his demise due to his poor state of being prior to his death.
The Gurley Street Mosque in Central Monrovia was filled to the brim as dozens gathered to witness the impromptu funeral of another powerful man whose notoriety during the erstwhile People’s Redemption Council (PRC) of Liberia’s military junta remained up to his death.
The end of the road came for Scott Z. B. Scott on Friday at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Sinkor following weeks of continuous media report over his deteriorated and dreadful state of being which was said to be purely mental.
The late Scott was one of the all-powerful cabinet ministers of the PRC who were inducted into the army in the aftermath of the of April 12, 1980 military coup that ended the over 130 years of rule by the True Whig Party (TWP) with the late President William R. Tolbert being the last president who paid the price during the bloody coup.
Being converted to the Islamic faith during his exiled days in Guinea, the late President Samuel Kanyon Doe’s former Justice Minister’s corpse was treated as such, in accordance with Muslims’ faith, with interment taking place on the Old Road in Sinkor the same day.
News of his death soon spread quickly to family members and friends as well as sympathizers who were probably expecting to get such news concerning his demise due to his poor state of being prior to his death.
As mourners trooped to the mosque en mass, there was one word from the leader of the National Muslims Council of Liberia, Sheikh Kafumba Konneh: “Please, this is no time to cry for Brother Scott.”
Another tribute payer during the funeral said, “When we read the newspaper about his condition, various mosques contributed. When we visited him at this home, he wasn’t speaking.”
The coffin bearing the remains of the late Jenkins K.Z.B. Scott is carried by sympathizers in the back of a pickup truck Friday.
Family sources had stated that the former Minister had not come to the point where “he cannot afford food to eat and a place to sleep”; neither had his children and family deserted him to fend for himself which might have pushed him into the condition that was being reported. They stated that something was far from what was being presented in the media to the public.
A lady claiming to be the late Scott’s daughter named Weedor Attelia Scott in response to the chains of articles had written that her father was obviously depressed and suffering mentally: “I cannot diagnose the specific issue because I am not there, and it is clear that the doctors in Liberia do not have the knowledge to diagnose psychiatric disorders. But it is clear is that he is sad from all that he has lost, and from all that he has seen.”
One of several mixed views regarding the late Scott’s condition prior to his death was that he was getting his due after his alleged ill-treatment of civilians while he served as Justice Minister.
Several individuals opposed to the regime under which Scott served experienced imprisonment, the current Liberian President being one of such.
Family, friends and well-wishers at the funeral Friday.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was reportedly arrested by him at the time upon the order of Doe. He went on to declare her unfit to contest the senatorial race during the disputed 1985 elections which Sirleaf did win but later refused to take up her seat based on opposition solidarity.
Scott, like the rest of the cabinet ministers at the time, was subjected to the ‘Uniformed Code of Military Justice’ (UCMJ), distinguishing them from being civilians. This meant that if accused of crimes, they would face the military tribunal.
His pre-death condition and now subsequent death make many observers to warn current public officials to beware of power-drunkenness, as a passer-by, staring in dismay said, “Is this the Jenkins Scott that made others to go to Belle Yelleh, when he saw himself as the last Hitler implementing Doe’s order?”
