Monrovia – Many had thought that the handshakes and embrace between President George Manneh Weah and ex-president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at the opening ceremony of the international SHEROES forum on Wednesday were signs of rebuilding their ‘rocky’, if not ‘sour relationship’ in the wake of the alleged missing L$16 billion
Report By: Gerald C.Koinyeneh-0880881540/0777769531/[email protected]
But listening to House Speaker Dr. Bhofal Chambers during a press conference on Thursday, October 18, you would sense that the acrimonious sentiments over the alleged missing billions saga
Speaker Chambers did not only call the former President a ‘person of interest in the ongoing investigation and the mastermind behind the entire saga’, he demanded her to apologize to President Weah for her ‘condescending GDP statement’.
It can be recalled that President Sirleaf, responding to Information Minister, Lenn Eugene Nagbe’s assertions that the government was investigating an unaccounted L$15.5 billion that was brought into the country between 2016 and 2017 without informing the new Weah-led government during the transition period, she was angry over the allegations.
She added that although she is not aware of what the current administration has been involved with, she is certain that no money printed during her administration ever got missing and all moneys printed were properly accounted for.
“This container that they’re talking about, the Minister of Finance has been clear on that, he said there’s no missing container, there’s no missing money. I am certain whatever my administration did was in accordance with the law and the constitution and there has been no money that has been missing,” she said.
She wondered why the George Weah-led government was refusing to release an investigative report compiled by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) on the matter.
“The Central Bank has already done an investigation on the direction of the Minister of Justice. Why haven’t they released the report of the investigation? Why are they sitting on it? Has the President realized what he has done to the country? The reputation of the country is also at stake. They’re talking about 16 billion, do they know what the GDP of this country is?” Madam Sirleaf said.
Following Sirleaf’s assertions, the Central Bank came up with a statement refuting her
Aiming a thread of jibes at the former president-similar to what President Weah said upon his return from the United Nations General Assembly, the House Speaker said her (Sirleaf) statement was disdainful and as such she should apologize.
“Our former president needs to apologize to the Liberian people and to our president. She should have thought before coming up with such statements that are condescending. GDP as an argument will not change this country because if the former President knew GDP, the renovation of a mansion that was built in three years should have been completed in 12 years,” he taunted.
“If the former president knew GDP, 66 concessions out of 68 will not be bad. if the former President knew GDP, Ebola would not have spread throughout this country and public relation issues that kept our country in the dirt for 12 years would not have happen-US$263 million from 2006 to 2012.”