Amidst US sanction
US Treasury Department designated person suspended Minister of State Nathaniel F. McGill has turned his focus on God for intervention amidst the corruption charges brought against him while maintaining his innocence claim.
“I am awaiting God’s intervention. My lawyers are working on it,” McGill told a group of Aljazeera journalists during an interview over the weekend.
The U.S. Department of Treasury on August 15, last month, imposed specialized sanctions against Mr. McGill, Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus, Solicitor General of Liberia, and Mr. Bill Twehway, National Port Authority Managing Director. The trio was accused of acts of corruption and other criminal conduct.
McGill has since written President Weah to provide clarifications on the allegations of corruption brought against him by the 2022 report of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
In his interview with Aljazeera on Saturday, September 3, McGill indicated that he is looking forward to any process that will give him the opportunity to state his case and exonerate himself from the allegations to restore his character he has built over the years.
McGill who appeared relaxed during the entire interview was quick to point out that he did not blame the Americans for the imposition of sanctions on him.
“You see, I don’t blame the Americans. I don’t think the Americans hate me, but I think somebody misled them. This is an investigation, someone told them the story.
“They never met me. I didn’t have the opportunity to defend myself on these things. I just heard about everything on the news. So, it came as a surprise and I still maintain my innocence”, he argued.
The suspended minister also argued that he has not been a target of the US Department of Treasury, and he sees no reason to believe that he has been. But pointed out that “Those who had the genuine reason to investigate corruption must have unfortunately been misled by others who did not have any evidence or facts to prove their allegation against me. So, we cannot say we are being targeted by the American government.”
“If I say there is corruption, have I established that? What is my evidence? Yes, people may be corrupt but the laws in Liberia say you have to bring evidence against the individual. So, there are individuals that have been investigated or are being investigated but I am not the Minister of Justice to lead the legal process to know who is guilty or not. The whole world, the whole of Africa, it is just difficult to say that nobody is corrupt, that will be an understatement,”, he stated.
“One thing you have to also know is that a lot of criminally minded people have used my name and position before to engage in corrupt practices, extortion of money from people, while some people make calls around purporting to be me and swindling money from unsuspecting characters who are not only stealing from the people but are bent on tarnishing my reputation. Just go on Facebook, it is all over the place, people are using fake identities, and fake names as Hon. McGill to deceive people. Some of them were arrested before and turned over to the security agencies for prosecution”, McGill explained while indicating that he has been a victim of identity theft, a situation that caused serious embarrassment to him by unscrupulous individuals who used fake identities to extort money from unsuspecting people.https://thenewdawnliberia.com/bombshell-us-sanctions-mcgill-cephus-and-twehway/
