Monrovia – A longtime colleague of former Central Bank Governor Mr. Milton Weeks has said that Mr. Weeks should be presumed innocent until proven guilty and that the history and track record of Weeks stand as clear evidence that he is innocent. Mr. Ebenezer Ankrah made the statement earlier this week.
Weeks is one of several high-level Central Bank officials caught up in ongoing investigations. Mr. Ankrah says that unscrupulous individuals were making it appear as if Weeks had walked away with the so-called “missing money”.
“Let me be unequivocally clear, Milton has never in his entire career been accused of financial malpractice and did not take a single dollar from the Central Bank during his tenure.” He said that contrary to popular belief Mr. Weeks is not wealthy and has simply been living off his salary.
“I have known Milton for many years. He is not a rich man. In fact, he has recently been forced to sell his home in order to cover his legal bills. A person who stole so much money would be building houses and not selling his home.”
Mr. Ankrah highlighted that Mr. Weeks had an extensive history running some of the largest financial institutions in Africa and is a highly sought-after banker. “Milton has served as Managing Director for banks in Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and Nigeria and has managed assets of hundreds of millions of dollars in these countries with a clean and impeccable record.
There is no way that somebody with such a stellar record would suddenly change overnight and start to take money that isn’t his,” Mr. Ankrah argued.
Mr. Ankrah went on to note that Mr. Weeks has said repeatedly in hearings at the National Legislature that the Central Bank and its Board of Governors had printed currency based on conversations with the Executive and Legislative branches of government, in which discussions had taken place in several committee meetings about the need to print currency.
“The reason why the Legislature sent letters on two occasions were based on requests that the Central Bank had made to print money.
The Central Bank had signed the contract with Crane prior to receiving the letters from the Legislature because there was a deadline that the contract with Crane needed to be signed to prevent the country from running out of currency during the Christmas season,” said Ankrah, “and after verbal conversations with the House leadership, the bank was advised that given the urgency of the situation, they should proceed with the signing of the agreement, knowing that the authorization letters would come within a matter of days.”
Mr. Ankrah contends that at every moment, Mr. Weeks and the Board of Governors had simply acted in the interest of the country to avert a pending financial disaster if new currency was not printed on time.
Milton Weeks returned to Liberia in 2007 leaving a lucrative post as Managing Director of the Stanbic Bank in Nigeria, which has assets of 2.7 trillion naira and 2,900 employees.
Ankrah explained that Milton had turned down the increased packaged that Stanbic was offering because he believed that it was unfair that he was giving speeches encouraging Liberians to return home while he was working abroad.
As a result, he returned to Liberia and spent several years working in Liberia’s private sector in various companies including Du Investment Corporation, Du Development Corporation, Business Development Services & Incubator, Auriole Enterprises, Safeway Cargo Handling Services and as an Executive Council Member of the Liberia Chamber of Commerce. Ankrah said he sincerely hoped that Mr. Weeks would receive a fair and speedy trial.