Don’t temper with post-Ebola money!

–Saah Joseph warns

Montserrado County District #12 Representative Saah Joseph, has seriously warned here  that anyone caught tempering  with post-Ebola money will face the full weight of the law.

His comments  here come amid reports that the British charity Oxfam is calling for a multi-million dollar Marshall Plan-type scheme to help the three-worst hit countries in West Africa, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone recover from the crisis.

Oxfam-GB chief executive, Mark Goldring, said: “The world cannot walk away now that, thankfully, cases of this deadly disease are dropping.” The charity said investment from wealthy countries was crucial.

“I was in Sierra Leone in a meeting and in that meeting, WHO told me that they have post-Ebola funding for Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. This is the time to build our health setup and I can say this to anybody; anybody that will temper with those post-Ebola funding for Liberia… some of us, that’s the time you will see throwing real blow,” Representative Joseph threatened Wednesday in a live talk show hosted by Radio LIB, a local FM radio station owned by presidential hopeful and businessman, Benoni Urey. 

The Liberian lawmaker single-handedly brought into Liberia and operated three ambulances that significantly helped in transporting Ebola patients and people with other sicknesses to ETUs and various hospitals in and around Monrovia during the peak of the outbreak in 2014.

He had just returned from neighboring Sierra Leone where he took ambulances and several staff to help in that country’s Ebola fight.     

The Liberian lawmaker, described by many Liberians as “Ebola hero”, said he will remain strong in his fight to make sure post-Ebola funds are properly accounted for.

He said his current duty as Co-chair of the House’s Standing Committee on Health,  will enable him to push plans for the construction of better health facilities in the country.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in her Annual Message delivered on Monday, 26 January applauded several individuals but Hon. Saah Joseph, for their extraordinary roles in the Ebola fight, an action that has received massive public criticism.

However, the Executive Mansion has clarified here that the President’s action was an oversight and never intentional.

When asked during the talk show about his reaction to be forgotten by President Sirleaf, Representative Joseph said, “Do you actually believe that I was upset after the message? I said this to the press yesterday, my name is written in the heart of the President and I can say that there is something bigger coming; let’s be patient in a week’s time you will hear about it and not just something big coming in April, the Independence of Sierra Leone, after April, there is something coming in the United State, there are lot of things coming up in Europe that will recognize me.”

According to Representative Joseph, upon his arrival in Sierra Leone, while presenting the ambulances to the Government of Sierra Leone, he told the people of that country the ambulances were presented on the behalf of the people and government of Liberia and in his name.

The lawmaker also cited three separate occasions on which he attended programs with President Sirleaf and was highly recognized adding that at some of the programs, he had to hide from the President to avoid this repeated shower of praises for serving his country.

By Ben P. Wesee