Monrovia – President George Manneh Weah has re-instated Madam Esther Walker, Bong County’s Superintendent, whom he suspended in February 2019 after a leaked audio recording of her had gone viral on social media. The story on the audio was broken by this newspaper.
The conversation in the leaked audio centered around the President’s displeasure with the bestowment of the nation’s highest traditional honor on Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor – a ceremony that led to the dismissal of the county’s Dakpanah (heads of chiefs in the country)
Chief Moses Suakollie, the Dakpanah, and Arthur Kulah, native Superintendent in Bong County (head of chiefs in Bong County) lost their jobs, following a high-level traditional meeting headed by Assistant Minister of Culture at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Joseph B. Jangar, and Chief Zanzar Karwor, chair of the chiefs and elders of the National Traditional Council of Liberia in the county.
The leaked audio revealed that President Weah was taking the matter beyond the dismissal of the chiefs.
In the leaked audio, the Bong County Superintendent is heard explaining that she had attended a party organized by First Lady Clar Weah after President Weah delivered his second Annual Message where she was lashed at by some close lieutenants of President Weah.
Madam Walker, who also chairs the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in Bong, was heard in the audio discussing to staffers in her office in Gbarnga about the reported meeting she had with President Weah, Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, Minister of States for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel McGilll and Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee. In the audio recording, Madam Walker narrated how those three senior government officials had told her how the Vice President, Chief Jewel Howard Taylor, was planning to overthrow the President. According to her, she was so astonished by such revelation, which she thought never had any iota of truth in it.
The Bong Supt. further narrated how the President was so annoyed that that highest traditional honor bestowed by chiefs of Bong County on Vice President Jewel Howard should have been his entitlement, instead of his number two.
Supt. Walker narrated: “…McGill was sitting down and he put a chair down for me. He said, sit down here and I sat down. The next person to me was Finance Minister Samuel Tweah; right now this government that we’re running – it’s three people running the government. They’re the ones that tell the President what to do – Jefferson Koijee, Samuel Tweah and Nathaniel McGill. I was sitting between two of them. He said, ‘What happened to Bong County? So, y’all took the Dakpanah title that belongs to the President and gave it to the Vice President? Melvin Cole and the Vice President want to overthrow our government? We’ll revenge.”
She quoted Minister Tweah as saying “We’ll revenge to the letter.” “He said the God that bless – you work for all of us to have job, 2) you’re in the middle. If you’re in front of it, you would have been the first to take the heat… If we’re bad government don’t you think we would execute all of you?”
She said Minister McGill interjected by saying no one would be executed but everyone would be removed from their respective offices.
Supt. Walker further narrated that she was saved by the wife of Minister McGill, who was visiting from the United States and begged that the Superintendent should not be held responsible entirely for what happened.
And so, she was suspended for time indefinite.
President Weah mandated the National Security Agency to investigate the situation and Madam Walker, according to reports, was vindicated.
She could not be reached Saturday for her reaction to her reinstatement.
More details to follow…