Institutional and individual calls are still mounting on the Joseph Nyuma Boakai government to ensure a full-scale investigation into the corruption accusations being traded by some officials of the Ministry of Justice over the use of US$150,000 given to state prosecutors.
The prosecution team in the murder trial of former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott received the amount in question for a change of venue for the trial but the case venue was not changed, and the money was controversially expended by the prosecution lawyers, including Cllrs. Bobby Livingstone, Adulphus Karnuah, Swahilu Essay, and Lafayette Gould, who are now accusing each other of corruption in the distribution of the amount.
A new voice, pro-democracy group, Democratic Watch Forum (DWF), has joined another civil society group, Independent Civil Society Union of Liberia (ICSUL), and several individual voices to welcome the recent withdrawal of Cllr. Bobby Livingston and Cllr. Lafayette Gould as Deputy Information Minister for Public Affairs and Assistant Justice Minister for Litigation-designate,respectfully.
The nomination of the two lawyers generated wide-spread public condemnation for their role in the distribution of the US$150,000 and trading of corruption accusations in the distribution of the money.
Anti-corruption activists say, amidst the corruption controversy involving the names of Cllrs. Bobby Livingstone, Adulphus Karnuah, Lafayette Gould, and Montserrado County Attorney Swahilu Sesay, and others, the best President Boakai can do is ensure they face either the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) or the General Auditing Commission (GAC) to account for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money.
The latest civil society group, Democratic Watch Forum, said they want these Justice Ministry officials subjected to an independent process of accountability to establish what happened to the huge sums of money they divided among themselves.
This, according to the CSO group, would ensure that President Boakai’s government does not condone,corruption as he has always proclaimed and professed.
DWF says it concurs with other advocates that what was even more troubling is the fact that the current fight over the use of the controversial US$150,000 was preceded by the fining and suspension of former Solicitor General, Nyanti Tuan, by Criminal Court ‘A’ Judge, Roosevelt Willie, after being found liable for breaking jury rules or attempted jury tempering.
According to the group, a GAC or LACC intervention in the matter could also shed light on whether part of the US$150,000 was used to illegally interfere with the case through a possible jury tempering and other means.
The two CSO groups have, however, praised President Boakai for withdrawing Cllrs. Livingstone and Gould, a move which shows that the current government is endeavoring to live up to its campaign promise of not doing public business as usual.
They are however calling on President Boakai not to stop at the withdrawal of the two lawyers but also subject them to an investigation to know what actually happened to the huge sum of public money, and institute the appreciate measures against whoever is culpable.