With less than three months to the October 10, 2023 general and presidential elections, Nimba County Senator, Prince Y. Johnson, has reportedly pawned his university—giving the university’s deed in exchange for a very huge sum of money.
A close source to Senator Johnson confided in the Hot Pepper that the Senator reluctantly struck the deal with a wealthy business tycoon in Ganta to liquidate his campaign activities. The source stated that the deal was sealed in June 2023 due to his inability to bankroll the campaign.
According to the source, the arrangement is that, after the election, if they (Senator Johnson and/or UP) win, the amount will be repaid with a 25% interest. However, in the instance where they lose (or even win) and the money is not paid in two years’ time, the school will be left in the pawn.
However, the Hot Pepper could not independently verify the information, and, when called, Senator Johnson’s phone rang incessantly without an answer.
The Hot Pepper recently reported that authoritative sources close to Nimba County Senator, Prince Y. Johnson, disclosed that, after the public and defaming betrayal against President George Manneh Weah and his Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in favor of Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai and the Unity Party (UP), the Senator was secretly sending messages to the President, soliciting money to fund his senatorial campaign bid in the up-coming 2023 general and presidential elections.
According to information, before he could break ties with the CDC government, Senator Johnson benefitted from several financial compensations, ranging from monthly support for his university college to support for security intelligence, etc. This information was corroborated by the US Ambassador to Liberia, Michael McCarthy, when he accused Senator Johnson of being involved with “pay to play”.
However, the Hot Pepper sources said after the break-up between the Senator and the government, all confidential imbursements for the Senator would be put to a halt, but with the hope of finding alternatives to obtain funds from elsewhere Senator Johnson would withstand the chokes and maintain his stance against the Weah administration. According to the sources, the unfriendly posture has been on-going for nearly six months now, financially strangulating the Nimba Senator and leaving him to survive only on his monthly salary at the Liberian Senate.
Reaching the heights of extreme suppression, Senator Johnson reportedly reached out to President Weah, through message, to lend a hand to bankroll the campaign for his re-election in Nimba County.
Apparently President Weah did not give the Nimba County senator the favorable response, thereby leading him to venture into allegedly pawning his university for swift solution.
But with all his effort, Maj. Gen. Albert G. Paye, popularly known as Pa Zoekweh, whom many refer to as a true defender of the land and people of Nimba County, recently sounded that the people of the county are not prepared to reward an individual who has individualized the county and personalized the Nimba people with another nine years in the Liberian Senate, culminating into twenty-seven (27) years.
Maj. Gen. Paye was referring to Senator Johnson, whom he accused of clinging unto himself the title of being the sole owner of the people of Nimba, including their decision to choose good from evil, which he described as hypocritical.
According to him, the people are wiser and ready to take their future in their own hands, thereby igniting a deep sense of reconciliation amongst the great sons and daughters of the county.
Maj. Gen. Paye, also known as Chief Zoekweh, underscored that “if the issue is about jobs as they want us to believe, it is indeed paradoxical, as the messengers are richer and wealthier in both property and cash than many Nimbaians combined, at the expense of the Nimba people, to the point where they’re opting to be extended following a protracted stay of eighteen years in power.
“They are now asking for a whooping additional nine years, amounting to twenty-seven years, which is outrageous at 70-plus years old,” Maj. Gen. Paye sounded.