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— Senator Moye reacts to Daily Observer report
Bong County Senator Senator Prince Moye has vowed to resign as member of the National Legislature if evidence is provided to substantiate media reports of him distributing monies to public officials during past and current budget periods.
On December 31 last year, the Daily Observer newspaper published a news story on its website under the captioned: “Boulevard Palace GM’s Death Linked to Top GOL Officials?”
In the report, the paper claimed that prior to his demise, the fallen General Manager of the Boulevard Palace Hotel in Monrovia Anwar Futloo was in possession of a leaked video containing evidence of high-level corruption among key government officials.
According to the report, the footage allegedly captured by CCTV in Room 1026 reportedly shows Vice President Jeremiah Koung, Deputy Speaker Thomas Fallah, and Senator Prince Moye distributing large sums of U.S. dollars to lawmakers and senior ministers.
The names of these individuals have been removed from the story.
But reacting to the report in an exclusive interview with FrontPage Africa at his Capitol Building office in Monrovia on Thursday, January 2, Senator Moye described the allegation as a mere and half-baked propaganda orchestrated by his political opponents who are mainly from the House of Representatives.
He said these political opponents are bent on releasing false accusations against him to the public due to his political triumph and roles played to bring to power the Unity Party led-government of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai.
He disclosed that though he has reached out to the Publisher of the Daily Observer newspaper, he took the decision to go public with his response to the allegations due to the gullibility of the Liberian society.
Senator Moye said the failure of the newspaper to contact him for his side of the story was unethical. He blamed “some CDC propagandists” as ones behind the spreading of the false report on social media.
Senator Moye pointed out that at no time he held meetings or sessions to work on the national budget or distributed monies to his colleagues and other members of the executive branch at room 1026 at the Boulevard Palace.
“When news are written by one propagandist sitting in one corner sometimes you don’t give it the kind of attention you have to give it because social media made it just so bad that anybody can sit in your little room, create an account and say or write anything about anybody and you will not know who is saying it. But when it is published in a paper like the Daily Observer then it calls for us to comment on it because this could reduce the credibility of the paper which Liberia has hope and credibility in.”
He continued: “Since I resumed the Chairmanship of the Ways, Means, Finance and Development Committee within the Senate, I have never had any budget meeting of that magnitude to Boulevard Palace. There are conference rooms all over here (at the Capitol Building). If we want to meet, I have my conference room. I can choose to lock this door and meet with Ministers I want to meet with here on account of budget discussion.”
He clarified that he never had any personal or closed relationship with fallen Manager Futloo as he (Moye) has never been a hotel goer to socialize or hold budget discussions, except for the holding of other meetings.
“All my budget hearings since I became Chairman of the Senate Ways, Means and Finance and Development Planning Committee are conducted right here at the Capitol Building. We have all the rooms available to us here and I don’t go to hotels with ministers. I go there on different things, maybe county development or other meetings.”
Senator Moye added that happenings which characterized the passage of national budgets under the former Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led-government of former President George Manneh Weah would not be entertained or carried out under the current administration of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and Vice President Jeremiah Koung.
According to him, the allocation of US$1.5 million for the office of the former Deputy Speaker, and the outturn show of over US$4 million in expenditure will not be adhered to under his watch as head of the Senate Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Development Planning.
“Under this regime, what for the Vice President will be for the Vice President; it’s not going to increase or go and sit in one little Boulevard Palace hotel room. I challenge anyone to publish the video footage that had us sitting there in Boulevard Palace distributing money to ministers, I will resign the next day. That’s my commitment to the citizens of Liberia. Those saying this are confused and don’t even know propaganda.”
Senator Moye attributed the negative media report against him to the ongoing impasses at the House of Representatives. He called those involved and “facing their serious political crisis” to “deal with your issues” and leave him alone. He denied claims being made that the leadership crisis at the House was intended for the executive to have full control over the national budget.
“I am saying to the whole world and the public that since I became Chairman of Ways and Means, there is no way a Vice President is part of a budget discussion; absolutely no. In the Senate, the Vice President only signs the budget that Plenaries from both Houses approve after the Speaker has signed.”
“The Deputy Speaker, by our rules, is an ex-officio on all the committees, but it doesn’t give you that right to sit with budget people to discuss anything anywhere.”
“It’s almost months ago when the revelation was made by Fonati Koffa about room 1026 when their crisis started. So if somebody has footage of someone, why didn’t they expose me? They can go and pay for the video footage of those perceived individuals they feel want to oust you from your position. If the General Manager had this video footage ever since I know Koffa could have sold everything that he has to just purchase it instead of allowing himself to be removed.”
Senator Moye used this medium to call on owners of media institutions not to allow their radio stations, newspapers and other outlets to be used to spread propagandas just to please their selfish motive of others.
He added that the ethics of good journalism must be followed to avoid propagandists spreading misinformation to the detriment of the character of others.
“My only regret is for a paper like the Daily Observer to get carried away by a propaganda story that will reduce the credibility of the paper without even coming to contact me or those other names that were mentioned. This propaganda against me is coming because we know that when you are progressing in politics in our country, you become the dump site of all the bad news. And that’s just what is happening; they will not just call anybody’s name because they know what we stand for and what we believe in.”
