By R. Joyclyn WEA:j.wea@newrepublicliberia.com
Two of the government rebuttal witnesses, Nagbolor Singbeh and Cllr. Joseph Jallah have provided conflicting accounts before court relative to the authorization of money printed between the periods of 2016-2018.
Nagbolor Singbeh, Secretary at the Liberian Senate taking the witness stand, told the court that there was no authorization given the Central Bank of Liberia in respect to the second printing of Liberian dollars banknotes in the tone of ten billion to replace the legacy notes.
The Senate Secretary under cross examination indicated that there was no joint resolution passed by both houses in respect to the replacement of the Liberian dollars legacy banknotes.
This according to him, all resolutions when signed by members of the senate, obtaining the number required by the constitution, is also being signed, attested to by him, something that was not done to the best of his recollection.
Singbeh, who claimed there was no authorization given the bank to this effect, mentioned that a directive was given to the secretariat to communicate with the CBL on the printing of the banknotes to replace the legacy notes.
Besides the printing of the L$5billion that was authorized by the Legislature, Singbeh acknowledged that there was another request made to the Senate for the printing of additional currency to replace the legacy banknotes in circulation, a contradiction of his previous statement.
Singbeh also indicated that at no time did he (Singbeh) appeared before the Presidential Investigation Team (PIT) to make statement relative to the printing of the Liberian dollars banknotes even though his statement is reflected in the PIT report out of which the indictment were drawn against the defendants.
Accordingly; prosecution second rebuttal witness, Cllr. Joseph K. Jallah, Senior Legal Counsel of the CBL asserted that there was a ‘Draft Resolution’ and an instruction from both houses to the bank in respect to the first and second badge of monies printed.
Cllr. Jallah claimed he was directly involved with the printing of the L$5billion that was initiated and similarly; drafted the resolution #BR/06/2017 for the printing of new Liberian dollars banknotes to replace all legacy banknotes in the amount of ten billion Liberian dollars Banknotes.
He further lamented that the resolution in question was drafted by him on behalf of the board through the office of the former Chairman and Executive Governor Milton Weeks and said draft instrument was sent to the Copy Secretary via Email.
Cllr. Jallah said he did not gathered any other information in respect to the draft resolution submitted and send to the Copy Secretary on grounds that he did not received or hear from the Copy Secretary until the instrument was executed.
These contradictory testimonies by the state’s witnesses create a doubt that is likely to work in favor of the defendants on trial. TNR
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