Monrovia – Liberia’s Minister of Justice, Cllr. Frank Musah Dean has dismissed reports of an arrest warrant for controversial Talk Show host, Mr. Henry Costa.
“There is no writ of arrest from the Court and the Ministry of Justice has not given any such order of arrest,” Minister Dean told FPA Friday.
The minister’s comments come barely 24-hours after Deputy Information Minister Eugene Fahngon declared that Mr. Costa would be arrested upon his return to Monrovia in December, ahead of his planned Weah Step Down protest set for December 31st.
Addressing the weekly MICAT press briefing Thursday, disclosed that there’s a writ of arrest awaiting controversial talk show host upon his arrival “Just as there was a writ out to have Mr. Costa station closed, there was also a writ for his arrest,” Min. Fahngon declared.
The Deputy Minister referenced Mr. Costa’s arrest with the arrest of former president Sirleaf’s son, Charles Sirleaf, as an example of what it takes to abuse or be entangled with the law.
“Many of you can recall when I faced the Legislature and I was placed in handcuffs, I was led to jail for two days; even the son of a powerful former President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in our society and Africa, was placed in handcuffs and taken to jail.
Mr. Fahngon said going to jail under the leadership of president Weah does not mean that one is guilty, but rather it is a process that the law “must take sometimes to get to justice.”
The Deputy Minister stressed that because the warrant to arrest Costa is a court document, any attempt by anyone to obstruct justice “will him or herself face justice. “Therefore our laws will be applied and we anticipate the arrival of Mr. Costa on December 19th, 2019 and it will be a test to show whether we are a country or an autocratic state, where the aristocrats rule…we will find out,” stressed Fahngon.
Mr. Costa’s Roots FM was shut down by the court by a search and seizure warrant in October.
Judge Ernest F. Bana, Stipendiary Magistrate of the Monrovia City Magisterial Court issued a search warrant upon request of the Ministry of Justice to undertake search and seizure operation on the premises of the station which hosts the Henry Costa Morning Show, the government says have been spitting hate messages on the airwaves and operating without a license.