Liberia: Lawyer Issues Death Threat on Journalist But Says It’s A Prank

Monrovia – Journalist Bettie K. Johnson-Mbayo now feels insecure, fearing for her own life and that of her children, having received death threats from a lawyer.

Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]

“I received a telephone call from a 0881790190 asking if it was Bettie of FrontPage Africa, I said yes, the only thing I heard next was ‘If you don’t stop writing on my client, you will be assassinated from now to September 15’,” she explained.

Few minutes after the first call, Bettie received another call on Orange numbers, 0777 519 212, this time round informing her that if she fails to slow down on reporting his client, one of her children would get missing.

FrontPageAfrica traced the Orange number to Cllr. Charles Abdullai. When contacted by FPA management, Cllr. Abduallai admitted calling Bettie and uttering the threat but clarified that he was only cracking a joke with her.

“Those reporters I joke them. You think if I want to do something to you, I’ll tell you? I changed my voice – you know. Tell Bettie I called her okay, I can tease her. If I want to do anything to you, will I call you on my number? Then I wouldn’t be sound,” he told the management of FrontPageAfrica.

But our reporter insists she and Cllr. Abdullai have never engaged in such a joke, and that she finds it awkward that he would choose to joke with her in such a manner.

According to Bettie, though she has a contact number for Cllr. Abduallai among her phone contacts, he chose to call her on a strange number (not known to her) to issue the ‘threats’.

Meanwhile, the management of FrontPageAfrica has written the Liberia National Police (LNP) to investigate the matter.

FrontPageAfrica management says it does not take threats of any nature against any of its staff lightly and therefore called on the police to urgently look into the matter and assure Reporter Bettie and the rest of the staff at the newspaper of their safety.