Monrovia – The Plenary of the Liberian Senate has agreed to invite Mr. Henry Fahnbulleh, Acting Minister of foreign Affairs to appear before the body to inquire how far investigation into the passport revelation by Mr. Andrew Wonplo has gone.
In his communication, Senator Marshall Dennis (CDC, Grand Gedeh County) requested his colleagues to invite the Minister to appear on Friday before the full plenary for questioning.
According to Senator Dennis, the hearing will give members of the upper house an insight into the situation as they prepare to take their constituted legislative annual break.
The communication was overwhelmingly endorsed by Senators Present in Monday’s session.
Hours after the US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo designated him blacklisted from traveling to the United States of America, Mr. Wonplo, who until his arrest and detention last year, served as Director of Passport at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, declared that he would pursue legal action against the US for creating trauma for he and his family.
Mr. Wonplo told FrontPageAfrica recently: “My plan right now is to pursue legal action because this has created trauma for my family and I think the US government was misinformed and they did not apply the due diligence and so I have to pursue legal means to be able to reach out to them. Definitely I’m going to sue them.”
Mr. Wonplo was arrested in August 2019, along with a Nigerian national identified as Adedoyin E. Atiro and accused of selling Liberian Passports to foreign nationals.
The US State Department of State designated Wonplo and his entire family blacklisted from entering the US.
According to the US Secretary of State, the designation is made under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2020 (Div. G, P.L. 116-94). “Under Section 7031(c), once the Secretary of State designates officials of foreign governments for their involvement, directly or indirectly, in significant corruption, those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States.
The law also requires the Secretary of State to either publicly or privately designate such officials and their immediate family members. In addition to Mr. Wonplo, I am announcing the public designation of his spouse, Dennice Wonplo, and their minor children.
This designation reaffirms U.S. commitment to standing with the people and government of Liberia in their fight against corruption. The Department will continue to use these authorities to promote accountability for corrupt actors in this region and globally.”
Mr. Wonplo says he was taken aback by the US for labeling him as corrupt and blacklisting him due to his 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.