Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar – 0776819983/0880-361116/life2short4some@yahoo.com
MONROVIA, Liberia – Fallen Deputy Minister for Operations at the Ministry of National Defense, Ernest Momo Vafee will be laid to rest on Saturday, October 8, 2019, in the Township of Johnsonville, outside the capital Monrovia, Punch FM/TV’s Online Service has reliably learned.
Vafee died of Type 2 diabetes at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital early Saturday, 19 January 2019, after his blood sugar level went high and he was rushed at the hospital to be attended to medically.
Type 2 diabetes, is the most common type of diabetes. It is a disease that occurs when one’s blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. Blood glucose is your main source of energy and comes mainly from the food you eat. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, helps glucose get into your cells to be used for energy. In type 2 diabetes, your body doesn’t make enough insulin or doesn’t use insulin well. Too much glucose then stays in your blood, and not enough reaches your cells.
By 3 AM on the day of his demise, Vafee’s blood sugar level went high, thereby prompting his relatives to have rushed him to the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital for medical attention.
At Catholic Hospital, doctors there were said to have fought frantically to stabilize Vafee’s health condition, even applying oxygen therapy on him but to no avail.
Following doctors’ advice to place him under oxygen support for a while, Vafee requested that the oxygen be removed, informing the medical staff at Catholic Hospital that he could now breathe normally, one family source mournfully told Punch FM/TV’s Online Service.
The source narrated that minutes after the oxygen was removed, it was when the fallen deputy minister of defense gave up the ghost.
The remains of Vafee will be removed from the St. Moses Funeral Home located in Gardnerville, along the Somalia Drive, on Friday, 7 February 2019, and taken to the Monrovia Christian Fellowship Church on 9th Street, behind the Headquarters of the National Elections Commission (NEC), for a night of wake keeping slated to begin at 9 PM. Thereafter, on the following day, Saturday, 8 February, funeral service will be held at the same church, beginning at 10 AM, while burial follows at the Johnsonville Cemetery, in Johnsonville Township, rural Montserrado County.
Prior to his appointment and subsequent confirmation as Deputy Minister for Operations at the Ministry of National Defense, Vafee served the same ministry in the capacity of Policy Analyst.
Vafee was an experienced Liberian with a proven track record in the development and analysis of social, economic, political and security policy, well-schooled in project proposal writing, project management, monitoring and evaluation.
He held a masters’ degree in International Development Policy from the Duke University, North Carolina, USA; a post-graduate diploma in Budget and Public Financial Management from the same university; as well as another post-graduate diploma in technical report writing and presentation skills, from the West Africa Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), Lagos, Nigeria; and a BSc in Economics, from the University of Liberia.
He had an extensive private sector service record dating back to 2002, when he served as Coordinator for the Peace and Civil Education Desk, Young Men Christian Association (YMCA), Liberia; Executive Director/Co-Founder, Youth Crime Watch Of Liberia, from 2004-2006; Speaker, Mano River Union Youth Parliament, from 2006-2012. He was also a student activist during his days at the University of Liberia, from 1995-2001.
Fallen Deputy Minister Vafee also worked as Director of Research and Policy, in the office of the Vice President of Liberia, from 2006-2008; and as Technical Assistant/ Macro-Fiscal Analyst, at the Ministry of Finance, from 2008-2012.
