Capitol Hill, Monrovia – The House of Representatives has summoned the Inspector General of the Liberia National Police (LNP), Patrick Sudue, along with the Commissioner General of the Liberia Immigration Services (LIS) Robert Budy, Sr. and the Executive Director of the National Identification Registry (NIR) J. Tiah Nagbe over report of theft and illegal identification of citizens and foreign nationals by a staff of the NIR.
Plenary’s decision was based on a communication by Rep. Jimmy Smith (District #2, Montserrado County), craving the decision of the House to invite the officials to state why the Legislature should still have confidence in the national identification exercise in the wake of the theft of a machine and fraudulent printing of identification cards by a senior staff of the Registry outside of the institution.
Representative Smith said on September 26, the Liberia National Police, following a tip off, arrested the illegal printing of dozens of national identification cards at a private property within his district named and styled Masco Clinic and Strong FM located within the Double Bridge Community in Jacob Town.
According to the lawmaker, an NIR machine identified to be assigned in Margibi County was criminally taken to the compound by an employee identified as Foday Kanneh.
From the evidence gathered, the lawmaker said it appeared that the action was the work of a criminal syndicate.
“This act is intended to subvert the sanctity of our citizenship and democracy, which is a felony, a serious capital offense that undermines confidence in the entire NIR process,” the lawmaker wrote in his communication.
Meanwhile, Rep. Smith’s request was accepted and based on a motion filed by Rep. Alex Grant of Grand Gedeh County, the officials including the LNP Inspector General Sudue, LIS Commission General Budy and the NIR Executive Director Nagbe will appear on Thursday, October 8 behind a closed door session.
The lawmakers will be eager to listen to the testaments of the officials, especially the NIR Executive Director J. Tiah Nagbe, who recently appealed for more budgetary allocation to enhance the data management system of Liberia to promote the country’s young democracy.
In recent days, the social media has been flooded with photos of dozens of national identification cards allegedly taken by Kanneh at the Radio station.
One of the bloggers, identified as Albert Dennis Tokpah II, posting several identification cards on his Facebook page, alleged that the fraudulent action is being masterminded by the owner of Masco Clinic and Strong FM, he named as Musa Sherrif.
Tokpah claimed that the police caught Kanneh with over 90 pieces of ID cards at the compound.
Writing further, he said preliminary investigation conducted by police uncovered that Kanneh and his collaborators printed 4,500 national identification cards for foreigners from Guinea, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone before he was caught.
Meanwhile, the fraudulent act at the NIR is being unearthed in the wake of a fresh passport scandal at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs involving former Director of Passport Andrew Wonplo and his former bosses.
Wonplo was previously arrested and taken to court by the Liberian Government for allegedly issuing Liberia’s diplomatic passports to foreign nationals.
But the government’s failure to prosecute him led the court to drop all charges against him.
However, he was black listed by the United States Government, and along with his family was denied entry to the United States.
In the wake of his denial, Wonplo has released a written statement and a barrage of audios linking his former bosses including former Foreign Minister Gbehzongar Findley to the fraudulent act.
Mr. Findley, currently a Senatorial Candidate in the December 8, 2020 Special Senatorial Elections has denied the allegations.