The Editor,
Only time will tell. Could this be the fish and water analogy of Varney Sherman when he described the courts and judicial system in Liberia as water and himself a fish who was born in that water and boasted that he will win his bribery case against the government?
Indeed, could the kukujumuku be coming full circle as Varney predicted?
Strange this do happen in Liberia, or Liberia never ceases to amaze Liberians. Now you have Betty Lamin Blamo, the Solicitor General of Liberia who when the story surfaced decided to recuse herself from the case because she said she was one of the lawyers at Sherman and Sherman law firm who worked with their new client, Sable Mining and to avoid any conflict of interest.
Then the new Justice Minister Frederick Cherue who publicly affirmed his “friendship” with Varney Sherman are now both put in charge of prosecuting their former boss Sherman?
Thus, LACC, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission and its Chairman Verdier along with lawyers from Global Witness may be our last hope, or else it will be business as usual and the label of a “corrupt” Liberian judicial system could triumph here again.
Also, the GAC audits that were acclaimed by the European Union under the leadership of the courageous John Morlu but ridiculed a few months ago as not done professionally by a former co-worker of Ellen, the Kenyan Auditor General who and Ellen both worked at the United Nations, are now reportedly turned over to the Fonati Koffa-led Presidential Task Force for prosecution when the game is in its dying minutes.
They should number over 100 audits plus many other ” Presidential Task Forces” to include the Knckles-Gate Maritime money email scandal and the Elwood Dunn Commission.
Then there is the LPRC $24 million dollars Zakhem single-sourced contract and the Henry Reed Cooper Presidential Commission. Then there is the Ebola related curfew and the killing of young Shaki Kamara of West Point by government soldiers in 2014 and its own Presidential Task Force.
And then the $250,000.00 armed robbery of July 2014 by Fombah Sirleaf and his NSA agents against South Korean businessmen and thus the David Jallah Presidential Task Force, and many, many more.
And does Ellen expect these prosecutions to be initiated and completed in 18 months before she leaves office? Just mere smokescreen and window dressing to give the appearance that the long lost war on corruption is still being fought and could be won. The gullible Liberian people are being taken on yet another ride.
So the new Justice Minister says Liberians should give him the benefit of the doubt and not jump the gun? We will take him at his word as he carves his place in the corruption-riddled judicial history of Liberia.
Also what is at stake here is the battered image and legacy of a President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who emerged on the Liberian, African and global stage as the first woman President of Liberia and Africa; who had ridiculed her predecessors as “corrupt” and therefore declared “WAR on corruption” as Liberia’s number one public enemy.
And with nearly 11 years gone with just 18 months left to hand power over, history has a way of repeating itself. Just ask William Tolbert, Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor. Ellen has18 months to define her legacy, but I am afraid time is not on her side. Hope I am proven wrong. Good luck “Iron Lady”. Only time will tell. Da me again!
Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Washington DC USA