–Executive Allegedly Dishes Out Taxpayers’ Money To Oust Speaker Koffa
Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world, is entrenched with systemic corruption and a culture of bad governance, leaving vast majority of the citizenry in abject poverty and the fabrics of the society at a crumbling stage, including the health, education, security and justice systems.
At the top of it all, elected members of the House of Representatives on Thursday, October 17, 2024 publicly displayed what they described as a bribe from the Executive, in the tone of US$15,000, with a US$10,000 remedial for each beneficiary, for the purpose of removing the Speaker, Cllr. Jonathan Fonati Koffa.
The plotters, about 48 representatives, signed a resolution to effectuate Speaker Koffa’s removal, accusing him of significant conflict of interest, arbitrary decision-making, corruption (when he served as Deputy Speaker), altering the 2024 National Budget and conviction in the United States.
The plotters include representatives James Kolleh, Prince Toles, Alex Grant, Richard Koon, Sekou Kanneh, Steve Tequah, Bintu Massalay, Michael Thomas, Foday Fahnbulleh, Nyan Flomo, Anthony Williams, Rugie Barry and Samuel Kogar.
The Deputy Speaker was to preside, consistent with Rule 10 of the House’s Rules and Procedures manual on “Succession of the Leadership”, to effectuate the removal and act as Speaker until a new speaker is elected within sixty days.
However, the Capitol turned ruthless when a loyalist of Speaker Koffa, Gbarpolu County’s district #2 Representative, Luther Collins, betrayed the plotters and revealed the plan on camera.
The Chairman on the House’s Rules, Order and Administration Committee, Representative Marvin Cole, as well as Montserrado County’s district #9 Representative, Frank Saah Foko, were seen defending Koffa and resisting the plot. In an instance, Representative Cole insulted the mother of the Deputy Speaker, Thomas Fallah, for instructing him to open the entrance to the House’s chambers.
The Hot Pepper was informed that the real reason behind the plot is the Speaker’s request for the General Auditing Commission (GAC) to conduct an audit of the House of Representatives.
In early February 2024, Speaker Koffa invited the Auditor General of the Republic of Liberia, P. Garswa Jackson, Sr., and proposed a System Review Audit of the Legislature within a period of two years as part of efforts to ensure a future comprehensive audit of that branch of government.
Individuals linked to deep corruption and financial impropriety at the House, including former Representative now Vice President Jeremiah Koung, former Representative now Senator Emmanuel Nuquay and Deputy Speaker Thomas Fallah, being afraid of getting hooked, hatched a plan to oust Koffa from the Speaker’s position to protect their faces.
When Alex Tyler served as Speaker of the 53rd National Legislature, then Representative Nuquay served as Chairman on Ways, Means and Finance, and was allegedly the implementor of all the “dirty financial deals”, including collecting of monies hidden in the budgetary allotments of ministries and agencies, and receiving and disbursing “brown envelopes” coming from the Executive. During his reign as Ways and Means Chair, millions of US dollars of taxpayers money were “chopped” by the lawmakers, without anyone being held accountable.
Nuquay would be handpicked by former Vice President Joseph N. Boakai as vice running mate, and so he did not return to the House after the 2017 general and presidential elections.
From 2018 to 2023, the Ways, Means and Finance Committee of the House was presided over by Thomas Fallah, now Deputy Speaker. Fallah was deputized by Jeremiah Kpan Koung, now Vice President. It is reported that this duo did more harm to the Liberian people than any other person who ever served at the financial arm of the first branch of government.
It is alleged that the trucks being used by Western Cluster to transport iron ore from Tubmanburg to the Freeport of Monrovia are owned and rented from Koung and Fallah. A source hinted this paper that, if thorough investigation is carried out, Fallah and Koung would be among the richest Liberians.
It is also alleged that during the 2023 general and presidential elections, approximately US$4 million was covertly channeled through the Deputy Speaker’s budget and onward to Thomas Fallah for the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) campaign in Lofa County.
Consequently, for fear of being publicly disgraced should any audit take place at the House, VP Koung, Senator Nuquay and Deputy Speaker Fallah have allegedly ganged up to obstruct Koffa’s plan to audit the House, but Koffa appears to be adamant on his decision; therefore, they have resolved to orchestrate a plan to boot him out of the Speakership.
To implement their chicaneries, they allegedly solicited funds from several ministries and state-owned enterprises, including the Ministry of Transport and the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation, to generate US$1.2 million to properly carry out their plan.
Accordingly, they secretly carried out the plan and nearly obtained the two-thirds majority of the House, with each individual who signed the resolution receiving US$15,000, with a balance of US$10,000 to be received after Speaker Koffa was finally ousted.
Speaker Koffa, who apparently knows nothing about the plan, has recently been traveling with President Boakai. He followed the President at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and then to Rome, Italy. While away, the plotters decided to strike in his absence.
Unfortunately, the last signatory of the resolution, Representative Luther S. Collins, apparently not being in favor of the plan from the onset, summersaulted and revealed the bribery and removal scandal to the public.
The plan was then obstructed by the other lawmakers, who locked the entry to the chambers in order to thwart plenary’s session, as the law require that the Speaker be voted against in session for his removal.
Representative Foko was seen with external militants from the CDC, which led to the failure of the coup against the Speaker.
Speaker Koffa has returned to the country, and is expected to address himself to the matter, while some of the plotters are of the opinion that the plan has not failed but only delayed for the next session. Investigation continues.