Liberia’s opposition to go on hunger strike to push for the resignation of government officials named in corruption report
More than 300 Liberians to go on a hunger strike starting Wednesday to push for all officials implicated in the ongoing corruption scandal to step down for their current positions during to allow for fair prosecution.
The hunger strike called for by Liberia’s main opposition party, Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), following a corruption report by Global Witness alleged that top Liberian officials received over 950,000 dollars in bribes and other suspicious payments by the Britain based Sable Mining Company and its Liberian lawyer Varney Sherman so as to get concession rights to Liberia’s Walogozi iron ore deposit reports VOA.
Sherman is also a senator of Grand Cape Mount County and the Chairman of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s ruling Unity Party, is accused of advising the company to pay the bribe to persuade senior officials to change Liberia’s concession laws.
House of Representatives Speaker Alex Tyler, along with Sherman have been accused of bribery, criminal conspiracy, economic sabotage, criminal solicitation and criminal facilitation. The report by British based company also alleges that President Sirleaf’s son, Fombah Sirleaf, who is director of the national security agency also benefited with “a $7,598 hunting trip to South Africa paid for by Sable” according to reports.
“We are expecting that all those individuals named, be it the speaker of the national legislature, whether it is Mr. Fombah Sirleaf [President Sirleaf’s son] of the National Security Agency, once you are named in the report that is undergoing investigation, the Congress for Democratic Change believes the proper thing to do is for individuals to recuse themselves so is to allow the free dispensation of the rule of law,” Said Mulbah Morlue, vice chairman for operations and mobilization for the CDC to VOA
CDC is concerned about the prevalence of a conflict of interest that could jeopardize the possibility of the free dispensation of justice.
