Monrovia – A FrontPageAfrica investigation has found that contrary to widespread reports, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been directly involved in sourcing funding for the Presidential bid of her vice President Joseph Boakai.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
A FrontPageAfrica investigation has found that contrary to widespread reports, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been directly involved in sourcing funding from Morocco, Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast and a host of other countries for the Presidential bid of her vice President Joseph Boakai
The finding appears to contradict growing perceptions within the Boakai campaign that President Sirleaf has not been supportive of the Presidential bid of the man who has been by her side in the past twelve years.
Executive Mansion sources are being tight-lipped about the investigation and Presidential Press Secretary Jerolinmek Piah when contacted Thursday, could not confirm or deny when inquiries were made regarding reports that the President directly engineered aid to Boakai from several of her international connections including Morocco, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Ghana and a host of others.
The findings come amid a recent admission from Rep. Edwin Melvin Snowe, who was recently appointed as Campaign Chair of the party’s November 7 run-off activities.
Speaking Thursday on a local radio talk show, the UP campaign official acknowledged that the extra campaign process has posed serious burdens on the party and pleaded for the incumbent first partisan, Sirleaf to intervene.
While aides from both Sirleaf and Boakai campaigns continue to lay the blame on a long-running feud between the pair over the perceived lack of financial support, FrontPageAfrica has learned that some of those on the vice President’s campaign team betrayed his trust and misused thousands of dollars intended to pay poll watchers and campaign workers.
This, according to sources, was a contributing factor to the party’s standard bearer’s dismal showing in the Southeastern counties of Sinoe, Grand Kru and Maryland counties as well as counties in the Western belt, Cape Mount, Bomi and Gbarpolu.
“We still do not know what some people did with the money they were given,” a source close to the vice President’s campaign said Thursday, speaking strictly on condition of anonymity.
The issue is also being complicated by what one source described as repeated snubbing from the vice President’s camp of the President who, according to sources have been making several overtures including the offering of sit-down meetings with a small team from the VP’s camp, to now avail.
The controversy was compounded this week when Mr. Robert Kpadeh, Secretary General of the Movement for the Support of Boakai, posted a rather critical version of a speech on his personal Facebook page, while the vice President was still delivering another version.
In the version posted by Mr. Kpadeh, the vice President slammed President Sirleaf for not supporting his campaign.
Said Mr. Boakai: “Fellow Liberians, contrary to the assumption and expectations since the start of the formal campaign process for the 2017 Presidential and representative, neither my campaign nor the Standard Bearer Emeritus – all attempts by me or individual operating upon my instructions to extend a hand of cooperation to the Standard Bearer Emeritus have yielded little or no success. Instead, the Standard Bearer Emeritus is on record for making statements to the international media that, wittingly or unwittingly, have the net effect of detracting from our quest for the presidency.
A source close to VP Boakai told FrontPageAfrica that the vice President had rejected the comments put in by speechwriters but Mr. Kpadeh went ahead and posted anyway.
The version, according to sources in both camps reignited the feud between the President and her vice President.
Speechwriters also included in the version which was omitted suggestions that the President was supporting the VP’s opponent in the run-off, the Coalition for Democratic Change.
The version reads: “What is even more concerning is not the fact that the Standard Bearer Emeritus is not the fact that the Standard Bearer Emeritus is not supporting us, but we have received disconcerting and credible information from multiple sources even within the opposition political parties that the Standard Bearer Emeritus and individuals close to her and operating under her instructions are in fact giving multiple forms of support to our main opponent in the Presidential race, the coalition for democratic change.
It is strange and ironic that some of the very individuals whose performances while in government left a bad impression on the minds of the Liberian people would jump ship to the opposition CDC and be urging CDC operatives to hammer the Unity Party for ‘failing the people’
On Wednesday however, Senator George Weah, the Standard Bearer of the CDC dismissed suggestions the he is being supported by Sirleaf.
“I would like to strongly debunk the lies being perpetrated by enemies of progress that I’m receiving support from Madam Sirleaf. If the Unity Party is not able to cultivate a relationship with its outgoing standard bearer, they should not scapegoat the CDC.”
“You have your problems, deal with it. I want the Liberian people to think very hard about this, don’t give power to people who are disunited and very distrustful of each other; those that are bent on creating division and acrimony among our people.”
With so much animosity between both camps, some of the vice President’s critics appear unsure why he has allowed so many people in his circle to get away with so much, to the detriment of his campaign.
It is a dilemma Snowe appear to acknowledge this week when he lamented that it is regretful that too many attacks are being thrown of VP Boakai for mistakes made by many defectors now ringing praises on opposition political leaders. “I feel sorry for Ambassador Boakai. He is like Jesus Christ right now, he’s being prosecuted right now for sins he did not commit.”