Claim 1: “The Unity Party government will raid former President George Weah’s house.”
Claim 2: “Executive, Judicial Branches of Government Reportedly Divided Over Move to Enforce Search of Former President Weah’s Home in Gracious Ride Saga.”
Source: Yekeh Kolubah TV and Frontpage Africa
Verdict: There is no evidence that the government wants to raid former President Weah’s home, and the claim that the Executive is divided over Gracious Ride cannot be proven either.
Full Text: Hon. Yekeh Y. Kolubah TV, a Facebook account with 94k followers, claimed on August 21, 2024, that the government is expected to raid the home of former president George Weah with no further reason for the raiding.
The post attracted 438 reactions, 675 comments, and 48 shares.
Also, Frontpage Africa, a leading media outlet in Liberia, published in its August 22, 2024, edition that it has reliably learned of a purported plan to raid and search the home of former President George Weah for incriminating evidence in the case involving Gracious Ride and the government of Liberia.
The paper further said, following President Joseph Boakai’s legal team advice, the Ministry of Justice had requested a search and seizure warrant for former President George Weah’s home to gather evidence in the ongoing Gracious Ride Case.
Gracious Ride is owned by Nora Finda Bundoo, former Chief of Protocol in the Weah’s administration.
After being impounded by the Asset Recovery team, Gracious Ride sued for the lack of constitutional authority to seize its vehicles.
The assets recovery and property retrieval office is to lead the charge to ensure processes leading to the location, recovery, and retrieval of public resources and properties.
Verification: To verify this claim, we visited the official Facebook page and website of the Ministry of Information (MICAT). We did not find any information about the alleged plan of the government to raid the home of former Liberian President Weah, as claimed by Hon. Yekeh Kolubah TV and Front Page Africa.
Government response to the claim:
The government said its attention has been drawn to a story published on August 22, 2024, in the edition of the FrontPage Africa Newspaper titled “TO RAID OR NOT TO RAID.”.
The Liberian government denied any attempts to obtain a warrant to search and seize former President Weah’s home.
The government through Jerolinmek Matthew Piah, Minister of Information Culture Affairs and Tourism, said the story in FrontPage Africa is false and untrue.
The Gracious Ride case is currently before the Supreme Court. The government’s prosecutorial arm is the Ministry of Justice, and FrontPage Africa has not sought verification or involvement in any warrants.
Justice Francis Korkpor React to the claim:
In The Stage Media’s (TSM) possession is a copy of a press release from Francis Korkpor, former Chief Justice of Liberia, who refuted Front Page Africa’s publication linking him to a purported search and seizure warrant for former president George Weah’s home.
Korkpor clarified that he is not a member of the presidential legal team and made no request for a search warrant.
He warned FrontPage Africa against ethical breaches and to uphold the Canons of good journalism.
Please see below the release for your reference.
TSM also contacted Gerald Koinyeneh, NewsRoom Chief of Frontpage Africa, via phone to understand the source of his claim.
In response, Koinyeneh said, “As we said, we got a tipoff from our source within the judicial branch of government. So, we can’t give you more than what our source told us.”
“The source from within told us that the Supreme Court was divided on whether to grant the search and seizure warrant to search the former president’s house. We trust our source and it is left to the Supreme Court to invite us. So it is left to them to give us the benefit of the doubt.” Koinyeneh
Koinyeneh confirmed that his paper did not reach the Supreme of Liberia.
For further verification, we contacted Yekeh’s page managed by one Mbayoh JR Saah Augustine via Messenger.
He said, “I’m working on instructions, chief. I worked directly in the office as PR so I didn’t do anything outside his instructions.
We also contacted Yekeh Kolubah, Representative, Montserrado County District #10, to authenticate the page.
Kolubah told TSM that he stands by whatever post or posts made on the page even though he refused to uprightly confirm his link to the page.
Conclusion: Based on our investigation and research conducted, both Yekeh Kolubah TV and FrontPage Africa lack evidence to prove their claim. Therefore, the claim that the Unity Party government will raid former President George Weah’s house is unproven.
