Monrovia – The Executive Mansion has sharply reacted to documents trending on social media, bearing name of the former Director, Andrew Wonplue, which allegedly links President George Weah Through A Special Committee, to directing Issuance of Passports to Non-Liberians.
Deputy Presidential Press Secretary Smith Toby told an Executive Mansion Press briefing on Tuesday that the President has no interest in getting involved with such act as claimed by the document.
Mr. Wonplue denied entry into the United States early this month for his alleged involvement with passport fraud and corruption reportedly linked several officials of the Liberian government including President George Manneh Weah of being in the know of the passport fraud.
In a strongly worded press release making rounds on social media, Wonplue said his arrest and subsequent detention was, according to him, a calculated ploy by these senior officials including the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gbehzohngar Milton Findley who is now on his bid for the midterm senatorial elections, the Executive Mansion Chief of Protocol, Finda Nora Bundoo, and others as part of the passport syndicate.
Recently, US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, in a statement Thursday announced the public designation due to Wonplo’s involvement in significant corruption. “In his official capacity at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2018 to 2019, Mr. Wonplo was involved in passport fraud that undermined the rule of law, reduced the Liberian public’s faith in their government’s management of identification and travel documents, and compromised the integrity and security of immigration processes,” the Secretary of State said.
But Toby argued that Mr. Wonplue would have still been enjoying the confidence of President Weah, if The President was interested in such a ‘dubious act.’
“If the President had interest in that, he was never going to dismiss him,” he said.
He said Pres. Weah will “never” get involved with dubious act.
Toby: “What you are seeing out there which is being communicated is a trash. Why didn’t he say that when he was in government, but only when he is being investigated by the U.S. Government and is seeking sympathy, that’s when he is writing nonsense.”
According to him, Wonplue was not dismissed on the basis of giving passports to people but for secretly selling passports.
“He was dismissed after an investigation was conducted that linked him to selling of diplomat passports to certain group of people secretly,” Toby averred.
At the same time, the Deputy Presidential Press Secretary noted that Mr. Wonplue is perplexed over the denial of his family from traveling to the United States of America, based on an investigation he is currently undergoing for an “alleged fraudulent passport deal.”