LIBERIA PROBES DISAPPEARANCE OF $100 MILLION IN NEW BANK NOTES.

Monrovia, LIBERIA:

Liberia banned 15 officials including a former central bank governor from leaving the country as it searches for about $100 million in cash, or the equivalent of almost one-fifth of its budget, that was printed abroad and disappeared after arriving at the port.

Liberia's Former Central Bank Governor Milton Weeks.
Image: GNN.

Former Governor Milton Weeks and a deputy governor for operations, Charles Sirleaf, a son of ex-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, are persons of interest in the probe into the missing bank notes, as well as several police officers, according to a statement from the communications ministry. Weeks resigned in March after holding the position for about two years.

Liberia's former deputy governor for operations, Charles Sirleaf, a son of ex-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Elected as president in January, retired soccer star George Weah has pledged to fight corruption in the West African nation that was hit by the Ebola crisis only a decade after the end of a protracted civil war. The vote marked Liberia’s first democratic transition of power between different political parties since 1944.

George Weah, the current President of Republic of Liberia.
Image: Getty.

The Liberian government has requested the United States’ Department of Treasury and Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) to help in the ongoing probe.

The government’s request to its major traditional ally comes less than three days after news about the disappearance of a container full of Liberian dollars sent shock waves across the country, also grabbing the attention of several international media.

On Wednesday, September 19 the Ministry of Justice in a statement signed by Minister Frank Musah Dean, said that “the investigation is for the purpose of adequately accounting for all flows of monies printed and brought into the country between 2016 and 2018”.

This means, the investigation will now look into monetary activities of the state that took place about a year before the container of cash was reportedly brought into the country.

The government has also requested the assistance of the International Monetary Fund or IMF and representatives of several local organizations.

The National Bar Association, National Civil Society Organization, Federation of Liberian Youth, Association Of Liberia Certified Public Accountants, Liberia Council of Churches and National Muslim Council of Liberia have all been asked to form part of the investigation team.

Meanwhile, already, a number of present and past government officials including the former governor of the Central Bank of Liberia Milton Weeks and current Deputy Bank Governor Charles Sirleaf have been ordered not to leave the country.

Weeks told the BBC on Wednesday, September 19 that he’s fully co-operating with the police as they investigate allegations of the missing billions.

“I have been invited to come and assist with the investigation and I’m doing that, I myself want us to get to the bottom of this to understand where the allegation are coming from,”
he said.

He added that he was not aware of any money missing after it was printed abroad, and brought to the country between November last year and August this year.

It is unclear whether deputy CBL governor Sirleaf, who is the son of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has been taken in for interrogation by investigators.

Information Minister Lenn Eugene Nagbe earlier told the BBC’S Focus on Africa program on Wednesday that the money was noticed to have been missing between November 2017 and August 2018.

And 98% of the money was brought into the country during the transitional period and President George Weah was not “made aware”.

“Already we have seen documents to show that people signed for containers of money, people signed for bags of money the airport, container of money from the Freeport – this why we are asking some of these individuals to kindly work with the investigative team led by the Ministry of Justice,” he said.

Liberia Justice Minister, Frank Musah Dean.
Image: Globe Afrique.

The government is unsure whether the missing money was placed in the custody of the CBL or is in circulation, Nagbe said.

“Even after several weeks of investigation we still have not seen documentary proof that all of the money that was printed and brought into the country was placed into the custody of the CBL.”

SOURCE:
Bloomberg.
FrontPage.

Comments

CUBA CLAIMS CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER IS FIDEL CASTRO'S SON.

The suicide note left by Fidel Castro’s eldest son has rocked the Cuban nation this week, with the most astonishing revelation being the claim that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was his half-brother and the son of the late Fidel Castro. The handwritten note left by Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, 68, the eldest of Fidel Castro’s children, appears to confirm the longstanding rumor in Cuba that Fidel Castro fathered Justin Trudeau after a public tryst with Margaret Trudeau in 1970. “ Castro Diaz-Balart, who had been attended by a group of doctors for several months due to a state of profound depression, committed suicide this morning ,” Cubadebate website reported. The death of the high-profile government nuclear scientist, also known as “Fidelito”, or Little Fidel, because of how much he looked like his father, stunned the nation, however it is his “ explosive ” suicide note that has set tongues wagging in Havana. Amid a wide-ranging barrage of compl...

MALARIA VACCINE PROVES HIGHLY EFFECTIVE IN BURKINA FASO.

A vaccine against malaria has been shown to be highly effective in trials in Africa, holding out the real possibility of slashing the death toll of a disease that kills 400,000 mostly small children every year. The vaccine, developed by scientists at the Jenner Institute of Oxford University, showed up to 77% efficacy in a trial of 450 children in Burkina Faso over 12 months. The hunt for a malaria vaccine has been going on the best part of a century. One, the Mosquirix vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline, has been through lengthy clinical trials but is only partially effective, preventing 39% of malaria cases and 29% of severe malaria cases among small children in Africa over four years. It is being piloted by the World Health Organization in parts of Kenya, Ghana and Malawi. The Oxford vaccine is the first to meet the WHO goal of 75% efficacy against the mosquito-borne parasite disease. Larger trials are now beginning, involving 4,800 children in four countries. Prof ...

MINERS IN NAMIBIA DISCOVER SHIPWRECK LOADED $13 MILLION WORTH OF GOLD.

Image: Dieter Noli. Diamond miners working off the coast of Africa were beyond surprised when they discovered a 500-year-old shipwreck teeming with gold worth $13 million and other treasures. The ship, aptly named ‘Bom Jesus’ or ‘Good Jesus,’ was like a miracle to the miners. Bom Jesus was first identified and discovered by geologists working for the mining company De Beers in 2008. It was found off the coast of Namibia near Oranjemund. Image: Dieter Noli. According to experts, Bom Jesus is from the Golden era of Portuguese explorers who set sail in all directions in search of new lands to colonize. The ship left Lisbon in 1533 under the supervision of Sir Francisco de Noronha. But on its way to India, it mysteriously vanished. Before the discovery, the miners were draining an artificial salt lake. As the lake dried out, many lost ships were found at the bottom of the lake. Bom Jesus was among them, and it is considered the oldest of all ...

DEREK CHAUVIN TO BE CHARGED OVER ANOTHER 2017 INCIDENT.

New York, U.S: The Department of Justice is reportedly considering charging Derek Chauvin in a 2017 incident involving a Black teenager that came to light while prosecutors were preparing the George Floyd murder case against the former Minneapolis cop. The DOJ’s investigation focuses on footage of Chauvin striking a 14-year-old so hard that he needed stitches to close the wound, then kneeling on him for almost 17 minutes — mostly putting pressure on his upper back — as the youngster complained he couldn’t breathe, ABC News reported. Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes before the 46-year-old Black man died May 25, 2020 after begging for air. Chauvin was convicted of his murder Tuesday. Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder on Tuesday. (AP) A state prosecutor wrote of the 2017 incident that “videos show a far more violent and forceful treatment of this child than Chauvin describes in his report,” yet no action was taken against him. ABC News reported t...

BEES 'ARRESTS' SUSPECTED THIEVES IN UGANDA.

Bees 'handcuffed' one of the suspects around the wrist, while another had the TV set reportedly stuck on his hands. Image: Daily Monitor. Kampala, UGANDA: Two burglars who are suspected to have stolen a television set in Sofiia village, Busia Town in eastern Uganda are in police custody after they were attacked by a swarm of bees. Like police would handcuff a suspect, a swarm of bees mobbed the hands of one of the suspects, while another reportedly had the TV set stuck on his hands as they returned the stolen items to where they had been picked from. Ms Rashida Jowelia, the owner of the property, said her TV set was stolen from her house last Friday, but she decided to seek the services of a medicine man in Sofia Village rather than report the matter to police. The suspects were identified as Wycliffe Kinara and Richard Duki, both Kenyan nationals from Nakuru. Bees 'handcuffed' one of them around the wrist, while another had the TV set reportedly stuck on his hands...

MAN SAVED FROM POISONING BY DRINKING 15 CANS OF BEER.

Doctors in north-central Vietnam used 15 cans of beer to save the life of a man suffering from alcohol poisoning and yes, you read that correctly. Nguyen Van Nhat, 48, was taken to Quang Tri General Hospital on Christmas after allegedly consuming alcoholic drinks that contained methanol, a highly toxic form of alcohol. So doctors immediately gave him three cans of beer. Le Van Lam, head of the hospital’s intensive care unit, explained that the beer was administered in order to slow down the rate at which Nhat’s liver was processing the methanol, according to Vietnamese newspaper Tuổi Trẻ. Nguyen Van Nhat is treated for methanol poisoning at a hospital in Quang Tri Province in north-central Vietnam. Image: Tuoi Tre Essentially, there are two types of alcohol: ethanol and methanol. The former is a primary ingredient in both fermented and distilled alcoholic beverages—the stuff that makes you feel drunk in small doses and sick in large doses—although it doesn’t typi...

THOUSANDS OF FAKE COVID-19 VACCINES HAVE BEEN SEIZED IN SOUTH AFRICA & CHINA.

File photo - Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock Image: africanews. Lyon, FRANCE: Police have seized thousands of counterfeit coronavirus vaccines in South Africa and China and have made more than 80 arrests after a criminal network selling fake jabs was uncovered, Interpol said on Wednesday. In South Africa, police officers found 400 ampoules of fake vaccines, equivalent to around 2,400 doses, at a warehouse just outside Johannesburg. A large quantity of fake 3M masks was also found and police arrested three Chinese nationals and a Zambian national. Police in South Africa seized hundreds of fake COVID-19 vaccines and made several arrests following a global alert issued by INTERPOL. In China, police successfully identified a network selling counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines, raided the manufacturing premises, resulting in the arrest of some 80 suspects, and seized more than 3,000 fake vaccines on the scene. The investigation was supported and coordinated by Interpol’s Illicit Goods ...

DELE ALLI BOOED BY NIGERIAN FANS AFTER CHOOSING TO PLAY FOR ENGLAND OVER NIGERIA.

London, ENGLAND: Nigeria fans booed Dele Alli at Wembley because he was playing for England and not them. The Tottenham star has a Nigerian father, but he was born in England and has lived in the country since birth. Bamidele Jermaine Alli (born 11 April 1996), better known as Dele Alli, is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for the Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the England national team. Image: NGN. Loud boos echoed around the stadium when Alli touched the ball during the World Cup warm-up match. Alli made it clear from the off that he would pursue his international career with the Three Lions. He progressed through the youth ranks and made several appearances at Under-17 and Under-18 level. England fans flocked to Twitter to defend the 22-year-old star, with one stating: "Dele Alli is getting booed for playing for England rather than Nigeria, guys he was born in Milton Keynes." Alli did not let th...

LECTURER ARRESTED FOR GIFTING BOMB TO NEWLY-WED COUPLE, KILLING THE GROOM.

The wedding of Soumya and Reema in the city of Bolangir in India’s eastern state of Odisha was solemnized in February this year like any other Indian wedding, except for a surprise gift they received five days after the wedding, which ended their short-lived marital bliss. New Delhi (Sputnik) — Police in India's eastern state of Odisha claim to have cracked the sensational parcel bomb wedding gift case after two months of investigation. The police said that after looking at the many aspects of the case, they zeroed in on Punjilal Meher, a colleague of the groom's mother who has reportedly confessed to have packed a bomb and sent to it the newly-wed couple wishing them a happy married life. The incident took place on February 23 this year, five days after Soumya and Reema tied the knot. They received a parcel from an unknown sender. When opened, the parcel exploded, killing Soumya on the spot, while Reema and another family member were severely burnt. The Odish...

FORMER PUSSYCAT DOLL CLAIMS BAND WAS A "PROSTITUTION RING"

Kaya Jones claims the Pussycat Dolls were operated as a "prostitution ring" during her time in the group. The 33-year-old star joined the girl band as a teenager in 2003 and has now claimed entertainment executives took advantage of members, alleging they were "all abused" and had pressure put on them to "sleep with whoever they say". KAYA JONES. In a series of tweets, Jones wrote: "Tried to silence us, made us stronger. Tried to drug us, but we were wide awake. Tried to blacklist us, but fans followed. We aren't kids anymore. "The children you messed with that survived the abuse, we are adults now. Are you ready old ones to fight? Cause you all are looking mighty old. "My truth. I wasn't in a girl group. I was in a prostitution ring. Oh & we happened to sing & be famous. While everyone who owned us made the $ "How bad was it? People ask. Bad enough that I walked away from my dreams, bandmates & a 1...

Kioo17 Journal

Search This Blog