Suakoko, Bong County – The Director for Livestock, Aquaculture and In-land Fishery Program at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) in Suakoko District, Bong County, is calling on the Ambassadors of the United States and the European Union to use their diplomatic offices and appeal to President George M. Weah to instruct CARI’s Management to pay him all salaries and benefits owed from October 2019 up to present.
Dr. Nyakoi D. Jomah, in an exclusive interview with this paper over the weekend in Suakoko said, the management of CARI owed him pretty close to US$20,000and One Million Liberian Dollars,something he described as an abuse of human rights and bad governance.
Dr. Jomah attributed this deprivation which has subjected him and his family to starvation and unbearable living condition, to the constant interferrence of the Minister of States for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel F. McGill, on behalf of his “best friend” Mrs. Paulette G. Findley who ‘cosmetically’ resigned her post recently as Officer-In-Charge of CARI, when she lost the purported criminal case against him at the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County.
This paper tried reaching out to McGill for response but all efforts failed as his phone rang and he did not answer. Mrs. Findley has since denied Dr. Jomah’s claims, saying she acted within the confines of the law.
Dr. Jomah holds a Ph.D in Epizootiology from the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, through the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship based in Chicago, United States of America.
According to Dr. Jomah, in August 2019, he refused to connive with Mrs. Findley to illegally sell assets belonging to CARI, left behind by personnel of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) who lived on the premises of CARI for several years before the mission pulled out of Liberia.
He alleged that following his refusal to participate in the illegal sale of assets of the Research Institute, Mrs. Findley and one David Tokpa secretly took away a 50KVA generator from CARI to be sold in Gbarnga. The generator, he noted, was later discovered by an employee of CARI, Arthur Wennah who alerted the police and the public.
Fear of being exposed of her ‘dubious’ deed, Jomah claimed Mrs. Findley fasely incriminated and induced the Bong County Police Commander Frederick Nippy, who arbitrarily arrested handcuffed, and charged him for Theft of property, forgery, misuse of public money, and misapplication of Entrusted property without a probable cause in keeping with law.
But on June 12, 2020, Assigned Circuit Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Cour, A. Blamo Dixon, dismissed the purported criminal charges against Dr. Jomah and ordered the clerk of court to issue a clearance for Dr. Jomah, based on the failure of the state to proceed with the prosecution in accordance with Section 18.2 of the Criminal Procedure Law of Liberia.
The Court’s action, which is in keeping with law, forced Mrs. Findley to resign in August 2020 according to our investigation. President Weah then appointed Dr. Victor Sumo to replace Mrs. Findley as Acting Officer-In-Charge.
According to Dr. Jomah, Minister McGill has informed Dr. Sumo not to allow him (Dr. Jomah), who is a civil servant at CARI, or else he (Sumo) will lost his job.
“Dr. Sumo paid all staffers at CARI and refused to pay me which is a clear manifestation of Mr. Nathaniel McGill’s instruction”, Dr. Jomah told reporter.
It can be recalled that Dr. Jomah on September 19, 2020 wrote President Weah seeking his immediate intervention but to no avail.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jomah has threatened to go on another hunger strike if the government of President Weah fails to settle his arrears. Also, in June of this year, Dr. Jomah wrote the U.S. Ambassador in Liberia seeking the Embassy’s intervention.