MONROVIA– Bomi County Senator Edwin Snowe has alleged that members of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai family occupied offices to the 20th Street building linked to the drugs bust at the Robert International Airport, criticizing Liberia’s national security team over its handling of the recent US$19 million cocaine seizure.
By Jaheim T Tumu- jaheim.tumu@frontpageafricaonline.com
“We know who occupied that office,” Senator Snowe declared during an interview on the OKAY FM Conversation, calling for transparency and accountability.
“Members of the first family are occupying offices in that building. And the building has not been declared a national security threat or area of interest. It’s a free area. Nothing has happened there,’’ he intimated.
Senator Snowe argued that the investigation has fuelled suspicion rather than clarity. “You’ve built more suspicion than helping to resolve this matter,” he stated.
He criticized officials for naming individuals as “persons of interest” Paul Jamaal King, General Manager of GLS Menzies and his brother Peter Malcolm King, the company’s Chief Executive Officer only to later release them, including a cargo facility owner who Joint Security said voluntarily turned himself in.
“He has his telephone moving around. But he owns a facility like that. Are we serious?” Senator Snowe asked.
The Bomi County Senator also questioned the suspension letters issued to Malcolm King, who is also a Member of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) in connection with the probe, describing them as unusually lenient.
“Read the letter. What kind of suspension letter telling you, giving you all your rights? We’re making the letter as soft as possible because we need to talk. That’s the only thing I gathered from that letter. So something is wrong somewhere,” he asserted.
Senator Snowe emphasized that lawmakers were not seeking to point fingers but insisted that the government must provide answers.
“We did not come to point fingers at anyone. But I want to say to the national security team, you’ve built more suspicion than helping to resolve this matter,” he noted.
He pointed out that any statements from Senators remain unofficial until the authorized investigative bodies speak.
Said Snowe, “The people that we give the right to investigate this matter, let them start playing with the Liberian people. “The senator underscored the seriousness of Liberia’s drug laws, which allow for confiscation of property where narcotics are found.
“The drug law that we passed in the Senate is that if cocaine is caught, drugs caught in your house, we should even sell that house and give the money out to the government or to fight drugs,” he added.
