Monrovia – FrontPageAfrica has gathered that Information, Culture and Tourism Minister, Lenn Eugene Nagbe, was at the verge of voluntarily taking his exit from the George Weah-led government, but his resignation was rejected by the President.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
Nagbe, according to an Executive Mansion source familiar with the development, tendered in his resignation Thursday morning after a heated argument with Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel Tweah Thursday morning leading to the cancellation of planned press conference which should have been addressed by Tweah and the Governor of the Central Bank, Nathaniel Patray at the Ministry of Information.
FPA gathered that both ministers were summoned by the President who later resolved their differences.
Minister Tweah’s early Thursday morning radio rants did not settle well with some members of the cabinet including Nagbe who took issue with the minister for dismissing the scandal as fake just a day after the government announced that it had set up a committee to probe the alleged missing billions.
Minister Nagbe had told the VOA and other local radio stations in Monrovia that the current administration had nothing to do with the controversial missing money controversy.
The minister said the ongoing investigation has determined that in November of 2017 a batch of banknotes came in the country – just before the president assumed office. “Now, when the president received information about these newly-minted banknotes, he sanctioned an investigation which is being chaired by the Ministry of Justice and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and other security apparatus. The idea is to understand how much money came into the country, how much was ordered, how much was printed, which country it was printed in and how did it affect the foreign exchange situation in the country.”
The minister went on to confirm that the money was not LD9 billion as first reported but actually LD16 billion. The Minister said the money was brought through the Freeport of Liberia and the Roberts International Airport. “An estimated of a little over 15 billion Liberian dollars as far as we have concerned from ongoing investigation as of today and it came in the two ports of entry.”
But speaking to on OK FM in Monrovia Thursday morning, Minister Tweah described the report of the missing money as fake news, at further stated that the amount in question is L$15 billion, contrary to Min. Nagbe’s statement that the it’s L$16 billion being investigated.
“The total amount of money printed in the country over the last two years is L$15 billion, forget about what Minister Nagbe said. So, the fake story that came out about nine billion is saying that of that 15 billion nine of that is missing – now think about that – the entire amount of money supplied in the country half of it is missing – you don’t have an economy, you don’t have a country,” Min. Tweah said.
He went on to explain that it was impossible for L$9 or L$15 billion to be stolen as such move would cripple the economy entirely.
Minister Nagbe came under public criticism for saying that the current administration was not informed about the moneys brought in the country because he served as information minister in the previous government who should have been in the know of the moneys coming in the country.