Liberia: President Weah Suspends 3 Officials Slapped with US Sanctions
In a statement dispatched to FrontPageAfrica a short while ago, the Executive Mansion said it has received with serious concern, a recent United States Treasury Department report which designates three of his officials for specialized sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act. “President Weah views the allegations against the officials contained in the report as grave. “I would never tell a president who is elected by the people what to do but I think the President knows what the best moves will be. Asked whether he expects President Weah to dismiss the officials named, Ambassador McCarthy said: “I would never tell a president who is elected by the people what to do but I think the President knows what the best moves will be. After a rigorous inter-agency investigation, the Treasury Department determined that these three officials engaged in corrupt acts, and they are now subject to U.S. financial sanctions and visa restrictions.
Source:Front Page Africa
August 17, 2022 02:55 UTC
Liberia: Human Rights Commission Vows to Subject Police Inspector to ongoing Public Hearing Over July 26 Violence
Dempster Brown says the Commission will do all in its jurisdiction to subject Police Inspector General (IG) Patrick Sudue to its ongoing public hearing into the July 26 Independence Day violence. However, he said the Police Inspector General, Subdue has turned down the INCHR’s invitation on grounds that he is not subject to the Commission’s order. He said despite IG Sudue’s constant disregard of the INCHR, the Commission is determined to ensure he appears for the hearing. “The problem we have now is the police [Inspector General]. In a complete antithesis to the spirit and theme of the Independence Day festival – Unity, the pro-government supporters viciously attacked the SUP members, injuring several of them.
Source:Front Page Africa
August 16, 2022 20:21 UTC
Liberia: Key Members of Weah-Led Government Placed on US Sanctions
Monrovia — Three senior members of President George Manneh Weah-led government have been slapped with sanctions by the United States Department of Treasury. I promise to deliver on this mandate.’The sanctions under the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated McGill, Cephus, and Twehway for their involvement in ongoing public corruption in Liberia. These designations reaffirm the commitment of the United States to hold corrupt actors accountable. OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all dealings by U.S. persons or within the United States (including transactions transiting the United States) that involve any property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons. For detailed information on the process to submit a request for removal from an OFAC sanctions list, please click here.
Source:Front Page Africa
August 16, 2022 04:15 UTC
US sanctions senior Liberian government officials for public corruption
These designations reaffirm the commitment of the United States to hold corrupt actors accountable. Holding corrupt actors accountable and bolstering anti-corruption efforts are both consistent with, and reflects our commitment to implementing, the United States Strategy on Countering Corruption. CORRUPT LIBERIAN OFFICIALSNathaniel McGill (McGill) is Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Chief of Staff to President George Weah. Sayma Syrenius Cephus (Cephus) is the current Solicitor General and Chief Prosecutor of Liberia. Bill Twehway (Twehway) is the current Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA).
Source:GNN Liberia
August 16, 2022 03:18 UTC
LIBERIA: Rectification of HPX Framework Agreement without Acting on AML Agreement, a Disaster
According to reliable information, High Power Exploration has given the Government of Liberia a three-month ultimatum to ratify an agreement masked in secrecy which they entered into months ago. The current legally binding agreement between the Government of Liberia and AML so far has a current lifespan of nine years, which provides AML with the exclusive rights over our rail. The third amendment to AML’s agreement amongst other things, calls for multi-user access of Liberia’s rail and port infrastructures. So, with this clause in AML’s agreement, pundits are saying it will now provide President Weah’s administration the leverage to ratify the AML agreement before that of HPX without violating the agreement signed between AML and his predecessor Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Let us not forget that it’s stated in the AML existing agreement that no other concession or part can use the rain without the consent and agreement of AML.
Source:GNN Liberia
August 15, 2022 09:51 UTC
Gongloe Wants Legislature Reject New Elections Law
Presidential hopeful Tiawan Saye Gongloe wants the national legislature to reject the new election law because it exclusive potential winners from next year’s presidential and legislative polls. Gongloe is therefore calling on the national legislature which resume sitting today (Monday) to debate pressing national issues having being recalled from their annual break by the presidency to reject the new law. Early this year (February), the House of Representatives amended certain sections of the elections law of 1986 in what appears to be muzzle of Liberia’s fragile democracy. The amendment of certain sections of the New Elections Law (1986) of the House of Representatives precipitated from a report from the Joint Committee on Elections and Inauguration, Good Governance and Government Reform, Judiciary and Gender Equity, Child Development and Social Services. Gongloe stated that government is a place to serve and not to steal, adding, “Yes, public office is not for public stealing but public service.
Source:GNN Liberia
August 15, 2022 04:15 UTC
Liberia: Govt Denies Alleged Arson Attack on Unity Party Chairman’s Home
Monrovia — The Government of Liberia expresses fervent empathy with the Chairman of the opposition Unity Party (UP), Rev. Investigators from the National Fire Service have already been dispatched to the scene in order to determine the cause of the outbreak. The party in the release said the government hired thugs to commit arson. However, contrary to the UP Chairman’s statement, its Secretary General, Amos Tweh, had already sweepingly accused the government of committing the unfortunate act even before the arrival on the scene of investigators from the Liberia National Fire Service and the Liberia National Police. The government, therefore, urges the Tarpeh family and the Unity Party to remain calm while authorities determine the actual cause of Friday’s fire.
Source:Front Page Africa
August 13, 2022 01:17 UTC
Liberia: ‘No Intention to be Vice President’ – McGill Speaks Out; Provides Clarity on Corruption Statement
McGill and President Weah. It is never my intention to deface the Vice President. He said his gestures which are always approved by the President is intended to portray the President as a people-centered President who cares about the masses. I am not doing anything to undermine the Vice President. It’s a misrepresentation of the fact and that is the disadvantage of being a public official.”
Source:Front Page Africa
August 12, 2022 20:31 UTC
Liberia: Ailing Police Officer Threatens Suicide in Pursuit of Justice
He (Superintendent) came and saw the man (suspect) condition and he saw the man sick and he said when the man dies, our job will be at risk. Inspector Clinton further disclosed that minutes later, he abandoned the police station and went to the court to meet Judge Doe. According to him, Judge Doe allegedly used profane languages against him and his parents for his decision taken to temporarily release the suspect on medical grounds. Doe, who has been summoned by authorities of the Ministry of Justice in Monrovia, is yet to officially respond to the allegations. Doe was appointed as Judge of the Monthly and Probate Court in Jaedae District by President Weah on July 9, 2018.
Source:Front Page Africa
August 11, 2022 15:38 UTC
Chaos Erupt in Neighboring Sierra Leone as Citizens Violently Protest against Rising Cost of Living
SIERRA LEONE – It was a day of unrest and violence in the Sierra Leonean Capital, Freetown on Wednesday when anti-government protesters clashed with police in the streets; leaving several people dead and wounded. Sierra Leone’s leadership announced a nationwide curfew on Wednesday in response to the violence it said had caused an unspecified number of deaths, including among the security forces. Earlier, internet observatory NetBlocks said Sierra Leone faced a near-total internet shutdown with national connectivity at 5 percent of ordinary levels. Long-standing frustration has also been exacerbated by rising prices for basic commodities in Sierra Leone, where more than half the population of around eight million lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, the latest situation in Sierra Leone has left the Mano River Union (MRU) countries including Sierra Leone’s closest neighbors – Liberia and Guinea on the edge as citizens of these countries continue to grapple with high price of basic commodities such as petroleum and rice.
Source:Front Page Africa
August 11, 2022 10:18 UTC
LIWENE Makes Big Move in Empowering Women in Liberia and the Diaspora
This group dubbed Liberian Women Empowerment Network in Europe (LIWENE) came into existence as an offspring of the December 2019 « All Liberian Diaspora Conference». The conference resolution approved and supported by all major Liberian organizations in the diaspora, called for the Liberian Women in the diaspora to organize themselves under one umbrella for women empowerment and women development in general. LIWENE Chairperson, Emily E. Erskine announced in Geneva, Switzerland, on August 3, 2022, that in 2021, LIWENE founded a partner organization in Monrovia, the Liberian Women Empowerment Alliance (LIWENE Liberia), for the implementation of its projects. The organization’s programs on the ground in Liberia are operated through its regional affiliate, LIWENE Liberia, which has been officially registered in Monrovia. The full participation of young girls and boys in the school was a very positive sign supporting LIWENE to say no to early pregnancy.
Source:Front Page Africa
August 06, 2022 03:48 UTC
Liberia Returns to Coins Use in September
— CBL announcesThe Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), is expected to release the first batch of coins and other banknote denominations on the market in the middle of September. The coins are part of a total authorization of L$48.734 billion to be minted and printed in three years — 2021, 2022, and 2024. At various points in the country's history, coins were issued — starting in 1847 right after independence — and known as copper 1 and 2 cents coins which were used until 1862 and later went through modifications. They further revealed that the bank has done all it takes to bring the coins into the country by the end of September 2022. They, however, said that the issue with printing money in Liberia some years back had lots of missteps, so this time around they are going to follow all of the steps leading to the printing process.
Source:Daily Observer
August 05, 2022 11:20 UTC
Editorial: ‘We Are Tired of Telling Our Stories’
“We are tired telling our stories,” said young Cyrus Yormie, a survivor of the Lutheran Church Massacre who was just 5 years old at the time of the massacre of over 400 Liberians, mostly ethnic Nimbaians in the Lutheran Church on Tubman Boulevard Sinkor, on July 29, 1990. The former Captain said at the time, the lives of non-Krahn soldiers and security personnel who remained loyal were always under threat. However a ranking officer of the AFL Major Boi Bloju Boi (deceased) when appearing before the TRC, admitted that the Lutheran Church was behind their lines of control. As massacre survivor Cyrus Yormie aptly put it, they are tired of telling their stories. Those that have ears to hear, let them hear this: They/We Are Tired of Telling Our Stories!
Source:Daily Observer
August 04, 2022 19:50 UTC
“Illusory, Heartbroken with Lost Hope”, Dr. McIntosh Describes CDC’s rule as he Endorses Cummings
Toga Gayewea McIntosh has endorsed the presidential bid of former Coca-Cola executive, and ANC political leader, Alexander Cummings. “Elections are far gone”, he said, and the “promised hope” for our people has become a “lost hope”. Dr. McIntosh a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and one of Liberia’s most accomplished economists argued that though faces and names might have changed in the governance landscape, “the promised hope for our people has become an “illusory hope” to many”. The priority on the Liberian agenda must therefore be one of saving our dear Liberia. This is a must and precondition, if our people are to be lifted out of abject poverty, and if our dear country is to be taken off the slope of underdevelopment”.
Source:Front Page Africa
August 04, 2022 15:16 UTC
Liberia: United People’s Party Pulls out of Ruling Coalition
Monrovia – The United People’s Party (UPP), one of the constituent parties in the Grand Coalition has with immediate effect tendered its dissociation with the Memorandum of Understanding, with the Congress for Democratic Change. The UPP said the current leadership of President George Manneh Weah is not living up to the commitment contained in the October 2017 MOU that brought Weah to power and subsequently, the March 2022 MOU which is geared at re-electing him, as such, it can no longer remain committed to said document. “It may interest you to know that the compelling reason precipitating UPP’s exit from these collaborating agreements encompasses the failure of the CDC to satisfy the expressly stated and accepted expectation of UPP stipulated in the October 2017 collaboration document and, again, failed promises of the CDC associated with the March 2022 Memorandum of Understanding,” stated a letter from UPP, signed by its Acting National Chairman, Susanna Lorpu Mator-Seton started. The UPP matrix of the more than two-thirds votes of the Executive Committee in favor of it pulling out of the arrangement with the CDC was contained in a five-count resolution adopted on July 27, in Monrovia. It stated, “The Executive Committee of the United People’s Party with more than two-thirds majority in favor, do hereby withdraw from every and all electoral alliance processes with the Congress for Democratic Change with whatever nomenclature withstanding.”
Source:Front Page Africa
August 04, 2022 15:12 UTC