THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE:

500 Thousand Dollars Plus

Let's try to understand this story better; a Nigerian national brings in over U.S. 500 Thousand Dollars into the country via RIA. Liberian security authorities seized the money and deported the man, the man hires a Liberian Law Firm to retrieve his money, and then, the Pandora box opens.

It was said that the Central Bank of Liberia had the money, its Governor; Dr. Jones came out swinging that he had no idea. The Justice Minister; Phillip A.Z. Banks flip flopped on the issue and finally confessed that the Government of Liberia used over half a million dollars of money seized from a Nigerian visitor to augment security spending – Nah Wah Ooh.

If this scenario is correct, I assume there's some element of truth when Minister Banks said the money was used on security. However, the tax payers that are going to pay back and correct this gross lack of judgment need to be told which security sector(s) benefited and why so. I advance this line because in the year the money was seized, national budgetary allocations were made for all agencies, why then the need for the use of additional 500 Thousand Dollars?

Furthermore, was the money or the use of it ever disclosed to the Ministry of Finance, the National Legislature or the President? The answer to this will determine the truthfulness of Minister Banks' last statement on this matter.

We are a nation on the move with an insatiable need for money to do so many things in our rebuilding process; conversely, we are a nation of laws with voracious yearning to be accepted once again into the comity of law abiding nations. In this balancing act, when people entrusted to make prudent decisions and exercise fiduciary responsibilities over our affairs fall asleep at the wheel, it's appalling and someone should pay the price with dismissal or public apology.

Whatever the case, it's time to level with the Liberian people, tell them the truth and nothing but the truth and let the chips fall where they may. Interestingly, the Executive Mansion remains tight lipped and not making any public pronouncement. Madam President, what's the real story?

Anyway, if we don't hear from the President, it would be like many other cases before; the administration takes care of its own and two weeks from now, we will only hear specks of this in passing. It will die down horribly and we will be discussing something else.

Chairman Gyude Bryant and others not guilty; will the Justice Ministry ever win a high profile case?

We have come a long way from the days of media personnel being flocked, jailed, shot or killed. No government in the world today dare overtly mistreat media personnel anymore. It's now subtle and passive, when you are out of favor, some or all of the following things may happen to you;

· Your institution is blacklisted from receiving advertisements

· You are no longer granted interviews

· Your phone calls may not be returned

· Your emails may not be responded to

· You may not be invited to functions or press conferences

· Your invitation may be on the way (never to reach you)

· Your bills/invoices may conveniently disappear two weeks after submission

· Your check may not get signed for days because the signer is out of the office

· You did not follow the invoicing process correctly (a smoke screen)

· Your work or the quality of it is not desirable or you are too expensive

To counter this, I think media outlets and personnel should be on the alert in noticing, these new forms of abuse and speak out as loud as possible.