Former Solicitor General Betty LaminBlamo has written a strong worded letter to Solicitor General SaymaCyreniusCephus, formerly a defense counsel in one or more of the cases he now pursues under the government assets recovery program to retract allegations he made against her or be sued.
Cllr. Cephus who is on a storm in the government much trumpeted assets recovery fight was recently quoted by the Frontpage Africa newspaper giving reasons why he dropped charges against Ms. Ellen Cockrum, a onetime fugitive of the Liberian government, saying that the previous government entered a NolleProsequui in favor of a number of defendants so this government saw the need to do same to avoid selective prosecution..
He also indicated that among other things that any further investigation into Ms.Cockrum case should consider“the legal basis for the former Solicitor General Betty Lamin-Blamo recommending the sole source bid or selection of Fox Rothschild, “what became of the extradition proceedings, if any [emphasis supplied] among them”.
He alleges that Cllr. Betty LaminBlamo dished out USD 200,000 to Fox Rothschild after she picked the US based law firm through a single sourcing process.
But it appears like Cllr. Cephus has gotten his facts wrong here-at least according to former Solicitor General Blamo.
“…your numerous allegations against me are totally baseless and that you are aware of their falsity. Making false statement against another constitutes defamation as a matter of law where it damages the other. There is no doubt that your allegations are defamatory as a matter of law,” Cllr. Betty Lamin-Blamo warned.
“I am thus mystified by your plainly false and misleading assertions, categorically deny them, and hereby demand that you retract same.” She fumed.
“There is no basis for the false statements you have made because the Office of the Solicitor General in the Ministry of Justice is the custodian of the records in this matter. These efforts are clearly designed to evade your own responsibility to divert the attention of the public from responsibility for the decision just made to drop charges against Ms. Cockrum even though as Solicitor General you had responsibility for such matters. You have instead intentionally elected to unjustly injure my reputation.
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“In view of the above, I request that you do the honorable thing to retract the allegations,” she told Cllr. Cephus in a much detail letter that explains the circumstances surrounding most of the cases he now pursues and the ones in which he served as defense counsel.
“I request that you kindly have this done upon receipt of this my letter, otherwise I will be constrained to take such actions and measures as would be necessary including the filing of an ethics complaint against you, to protect my hard-earned reputation,” she added. See full letter on page 5.
