Monrovia – Stipendiary Magistrate Ben Bacon on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Ambassador-designate to France, Teeko Yorlay, in connection with social media posts accusing Wilmot Smith, the dismissed former deputy director general for information coordination at the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), of “stealing LISGIS’s Census money.”
By Victoria G. Wesseh
Magistrate Bacon instructed that Yorlay be detained to answer to charges of criminal coercion and disorderly conduct, as brought against him by the government, with Mr. Smith acting as the private prosecutor.
The charges stem from a Facebook post in which Yorlay accused Smith of criminal behavior, stating: “You’re a criminal. You have stolen the LISGIS Census money. Criminality is in your DNA, anywhere you go, you must steal. The public should take note of this criminal, not to accept him before he continues with this criminality.”
According to the arrest warrant, Yorlay’s social media remarks tarnished Smith’s reputation and character, intending to subject him to public ridicule and hatred, thus impairing his professional standing.
The writ further claims that in April 2022, Yorlay posted text messages on his Facebook page without any legal basis, accusing Smith of being a criminal. It describes the act as unlawful, intentional, and malicious, in violation of Sections 14.27 and 17.3 of Liberia’s New Penal Law.
The arrest order follows similar allegations made by Alex Williams, former Deputy Director General for Statistics and Data Processing at LISGIS, and Martin K. N. Kollie.
The two individuals accused Smith after Ecobank Liberia released LISGIS’s account statements to them. Williams and Kollie, while appearing as panelists on the Spoon Network and other social media platforms, alleged that Smith had illegally withdrawn millions of U.S. dollars intended for the payment of census enumerators for his personal gain.
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