Unless my math is wrong, I counted far less than 15 political parties in this “endorsement” statement of the embattled Chairman of National Elections Commission (NEC), Jerome Korkoyah’s nationality status.
But conspicuously absent from the endorsement are the ruling Unity Party, Liberty Party, the Alternative National Congress, the Movement for Economic Empowerment, strongman firebrand Prince Johnson’s political party and other parties. Supposedly, there are about 25 registered political parties in Liberia.
The Liberian African News Service, LANS has reliably learned of a possible pending lawsuit on this already polarized but significant issue of Korkoyah’s US citizenship status. A Liberian lawyer confided to LANS that the case will be filed, not only against Mr. Korkoyah but to include others, to the Supreme Court of Liberia, as will be the political campaigns that violate the Code of Conduct Law.
Thus, the Supreme Court of Liberia will be the final arbiter of this important constitutional matter, and no amount of party endorsements will settle the crisis. Liberian immigration authorities must be subpoenaed and are in a better position to tell if Mr. Korkoyah did use US passport at any time to enter and leave Liberia.
If so, Korkoyah then willfully committed perjury. And retroactively, the same law could be applied to Robert Sirleaf who many believe is a US citizen and held a US $360,000.00 job as head of the bankrupt National Oil Company of Liberia, NOCAL.
In this connection, we have announced the formation of “Citizens United for Electoral Integrity,” a nonpartisan grassroots movement that supports and will fund such lawsuits on the citizenship status of individuals holding or seeking public office in Liberia and the Code of Conduct Law which the Supreme Court ruled on this year as constitutional in the case: Liberia versus Selena Mappy-Polson.
Another issue that should attract the attention of the Korkoyah supporters is the outcome in the pending investigation of how NEC voting materials–voter registration forms, cameras, computers, etc,—ended up in the home of Mr. Amos Seibo, who was at the time a top aide to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Mr. Seibo had turned his house into a virtual manufacturing plant for NEC voting materials.
Mr. Korkoyah and his supporters need to press him on how NEC materials left the NEC Headquarters to end up in Mr. Seibo’s house. It is suffice to say that there may be other “Amos Siebos” out there yet to be discovered who are busy doing their thing to commit vote fraud. Why has it taken this long for Korkoyah and the NEC to tell voters how Seibo got hold of key voting materials?
Otherwise, a see trouble ahead where others will contend that a non-Liberian should not head the NEC and therefore reject the outcome.
If those who are claiming that Korkoyah is a US citizen and they have the evidence, then sue him and the NEC to the Supreme Court of Liberia. If convicted, then he must pay back every dollar he got in salary and benefit and then send him to jail. The law is the law.
Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Journalist and Political Commentator
Washington, DC, USA