If the Congress for Democratic Change feels that there is no case against its political leader, George Weah, it can continue to encourage the football legend to abandon and ignore the court’s order in the U.S. and rely on the Liberian way of doing things.
THE OPPOSITION CONGRESS for Democratic, through its head of operations and mobilization is demanding a retraction from FrontPageAfrica over our ongoing revelations regarding an arrest warrant in the United States of America hanging over the party’s political leader, Mr. George Manneh Weah, the party’s presumptive candidate for president in the upcoming presidential elections in 2017.
FRONTPAGEAFRICA REPORTED Monday that a court in the U.S. State of Georgia has issued a warrant for Weah’s arrest for child abandonment and failure to pay child support to the mother of the football legend’s 10-year-old child, Ms. Meapeh Kou Gono.
SPEAKING IN A VOICE OF AMERICA Daybreak Africa interview this week, Mr. Morlue, claims that the warrant is no longer in effect. “The speculation that there is an arrest warrant for Mr. Weah quoting court sources is just not true. While it is true that a court document published on the 18th talked about the warrant, but also the same court issued another document that neutralizes or withdraws that court file of 18 April 2016. So as we speak, there is no arrest warrant for Mr. Weah,” he said.
MORLUE WENT on the charge that the case in the Georgia court is politically motivated in order to diminish Weah’s popularity ahead of the election.
THIS IS A VERY simple case to be settled for the CDC and Mr. Weah. All Mr. Weah has to do is hop on a plane and appear at the Newton County courthouse and answer the charges before him.
AT THE TIME of FrontPageAfrica’s publication, Mr. Weah’s name was still listed on the court’s website as an “Outstanding Warrants Defendant”.
FRONTPAGEAFRICA DID NOT make up a story and there is nothing political here.
WHAT MR. MORLUE and his CDC loyalists have failed to comprehend is that once an opposing party files and appeal, the warrant is taken down pending the hearing which in Mr. Weah’s case has been docketed for May 11, 2016.
WEAH is not the first neither will he be the last current or former athlete to be entangled in a child abandonment case.
IN RECENT WEEKS, international media has been busy with stories about celebrities and athletes battling child support and abandonment cases.
IN JANUARY, reigning NBA champions, Golden State Warriors star Andre Iguodala went on trial in Los Angeles, California in the United States of America to testify in his child support battle with the mother of his child, Clayanna Warthen. Warthen is looking for $58k per month, up from the $16k Iguodala is paying right now to support their 6-year-old daughter London.
FORMER BASKETBALL STAR, Kenny Anderson, during his prime, had seven children with five different women. He was involved in a heated lawsuit with one of his kids mother, Tami Romain, when he stopped paying child support). Shawn Kemp, formerly of the Seattle Supersonics had seven kids by six different women. Those child support payments basically led to him going broke, according to published reports. Former NBA player Jason Caffey had 10 children with eight women and was arrested in 2007 for failure to pay child support and has since declared bankruptcy.
ALLEN IVERSON, one of the greatest players in NBA history went broke and was disgraced after his ex-wife Tawanna filed court docs claiming that he failed to pay the $40,000 ($8,000/month over 5 months) in child support that he agreed to and suggested he be thrown in jail. NBA great Ralph Sampson was arrested for failure to pay child support in 2011 while in 2004, Vernon Maxwell was jailed for failure to $160,000 in child support. The list goes on and on.
THE IRONY OF THIS IS that none of those athletes considered running for President, Mr. Weah is. Leadership comes with responsibility and anyone eyeing the highest office in the land of any country is subject to scrutiny; no exceptions!!!
IRONICALY, ALL THIS is unfolding as the world observe World Press Freedom Day.
INTERESTINGLY, this year, Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, in his message this year declared: “On this World Press Freedom Day, I urge all Governments, politicians, businesses and citizens to commit to nurturing and protecting an independent, free media. Without this fundamental right, people are less free and less empowered. With it, we can work together for a world of dignity and opportunity for all.”
IF THE PARTY which considers itself the main opposition party in Liberia cannot muster the courage, tolerance and fortitude to deal with a public relations blunder in a mature manner, it is sending a clear and pressing message that the press under its watch will not enjoy the freedom so many have died and laboured in vain to preserve.
IN THE UNITED STATES of America, more than $100 billion is owed in unpaid child support but nearly half of that to taxpayers supporting children on public assistance, according to the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement.
IN FACT, in 1998, Sports Illustrated reported that in several states the baseline amount for a man who is proved to have fathered a child is roughly 20% of his income as support until the child turns 18. Considerations such as time spent with the child and the income of the mother are factored into a complex equation and can slightly reduce or increase the award.
IF THOSE PAYMENTS are not made according to the report, the children are forced to go on public assistance where payments are supposed to be made to the government in the form of reimbursement. About 49% of that back money — or roughly $53 billion — is owed to the government; the report quoted an official from the family & economic security of the National Women’s Law Center.
IN LIBERIA, SIMPLE THINGS that matter the most are taken for granted. Scores of children roam the street daily without father or mother because the country simply lacks the system to keep track or because courts are not strong enough to hold fathers in check.
HERE WE HAVE a self-proclaimed ‘Grass-Roots’ political party on whose backs many youngsters are riding in hopes that they will have a better tomorrow, engulfed in a controversy in a nation where domestic violence, especially persistent non-support and abandonment of families as well as child abuse has been identified by the Ministry of Gender and Protection, as a major reason for the rise in child prostitution.
IF THE PARTY CANNOT exercise tolerance but will resort to personal attacks on the messenger and a mother crying out for help for her 10-year-old, Mr. Weah and the CDC has their work cut out for them.
WHAT THEY CAN be assured of is that FrontPageAfrica will never apologize or retract a story which has been proven with supporting documents to be true.
JUDGE EUGENE BENTON’S ruling is clear that: “The plaintiff having Counsel and the Defendant failed to show for the final hearing. The Court having heard the testimony from the Plaintiff found that it was in the child’s best interest to enter a temporary final order for child support.”
THE COURT RULED on April 22, 2016, that Mr. Weah is the biological father of the minor child, born in 2005 per the DNA results taken on or about May 1st, 2015. “On a temporary basis, the Father shall child support in the amount of US$1,000.00 per month commencing May 1st, 2016 to be paid on the 1st day of each month, and continuing every month thereafter until further order of the court.”
SOME SENIOR MEMBERS of the “mighty Congress for Democratic Change” have fallen on the wrong side of the system and establishment in pursuit of rights and free speech and we have supported them and will continue to. What we will not do, is become intimidated, bamboozled or threatened by any force under the guise of a retraction for publishing the truth.
IF THE CDC FEELS that there is no case against its political leader, they can continue to encourage Ambassador Weah to abandon and ignore the court’s order and rely on the Liberian way of doing things in hopes that all this has been a nightmare which will all soon go away; the can simply await whatever final judgment that comes out of the May 11, 2016 hearing into what the party believes is a political witch hunt orchestrated by FrontPageAfrica to keep Mr. Weah from becoming President of Liberia.