Opposition Senator Darius Dillon announced a plan to request a Senate investigation into whether President George Manneh Weah is using his own money to acquire properties here or the state’s money. Mr. Dillon’s pronouncement came via a local radio Wednesday morning, 6 May less than 24 hours after the Executive Mansion admitted that President George Manneh Weah owns the 9th Street, Sinkor property that has caused wide public criticism over its construction during the coronavirus crisis.
“I am announcing this morning that I will make it an agenda for the Senate to take siege of it,” Mr. Dillon says, disclosing his plan to put the issue on the agenda so that the Senate can begin investigating whether the president is using his own money to acquire these properties or the state’s money.
“We can’t continue to sit and allow people to go with impunity because you are a president,” he adds, arguing that the Executive Mansion tried to run away from the president’s ownership of the property because they know the source of the funding has been raising eyebrows and questions.
He claims that the Executive has now realized that attaching ownership of the property to President Weah’s son Timothy Weah was putting young Timothy against American laws, thereby allegedly compelling the Executive to clarify that the president still owns the property since he was the original owner.Concerning Timothy’s citizenship, Dillon argues that technically Timothy is still a Liberian citizen until he reaches the maturity age of 23.
Mr. Dillon’s comment comes after Deputy Presidential Press Secretary Smith Toby on Tuesday, 5 May faced the challenging task of saying his previous pronouncement that Timothy owned the 9th Street property was untrue as the real owner of the property remains the president.
Toby’s statement on Tuesday differed with his initial pronouncement on Monday this week that President Weah had turned over the 9th Street, Sinkor property to his son Timothy Weah when he (President Weah) took over as president of Liberia.
Toby had claimed that all the things being used on the project were long imported before the coronavirus crisis, and that the project is being spearheaded by the First Lady Madam Clar Weah as Timothy had transformed the property to his own liking.
In an apparent effort to divert the public’s attention from the president concerning the property’s ownership, Toby further claimed on Monday that President Weah is not spending a dime on that project, saying contractors are being paid by the supervisor of the project – the First Lady.
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He detailed that Timothy is the sole financier of that property, asking the talk show host at OK FM to wait a little bit to get the transfer document to be convinced.
But on Tuesday, Toby returned with a completely different version as to the ownership of the 9th Street property, saying the property on 9th Street is not owned by Timothy Weah as he (Toby) had said. Professionally, Toby says he had to apologize to the public, saying the previous information on that property was not the right information.
By Winston W. Parley
