By: Moses M. Tokpah
Liberia-The Government of Liberia has reacted to former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, now Margibi County Senator, Nathaniel Farlo McGill’s writ of prohibition with the Supreme Court of Liberia, saying that there is no immunity for unlawful acts.
Senator McGill has prayed for Prohibition at the Supreme Court of Liberia to stop ongoing investigation against him regarding allegations of payroll paddling amongst others.
The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC), in keeping with background investigation into supplementary payroll at the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, on August 21, 2024, last week invited former Minister McGill to answer to allegations of payroll paddling and acts of corruption resulting from salary payment affecting the supplementary payroll continuing 728 names at the Ministry.
The LACC said the supplementary payroll was created outside of the framework of the Civil Service Agency, and that the process was marred by irregularities amounting to payroll paddling, administrative malpractice, and act of corruption among others.
The Margibi Senator honored the invitation at the LACC and thereafter filed a petition for an alternative writ of prohibition before he Supreme Court to among other things inhibit, restrain and prohibit the LACC from proceeding with their investigations against him.
Sen. McGill’s principal argument according to Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah is that he was a principal assistant to former president George Manneh Weah at the time of the alleged corruption act, and that if there were acts of corruption surrounding the payroll paddling process that the LACC is investigating, those acts were committed at the instruction of the former president.
Minister Piah also quotes Senator McGill as saying since the former president is constitutionally immune from persecution, he as a principal assistant who acted on the instruction of the former president, is immune from any kind of investigation.
Meanwhile, the Minister said the government will respect the process that has unfolded since the Senator went to the court thereby commending him for doing so.
He said while the government allows the legal process to take place, it has its own thought process and it believes that there is no immunity for unlawful acts especially for agents who claim to act on behalf of their principals.
Piah argued that the reasoning provided by McGill does not look okay to the government, adding “he does not have the entitlement that he’s claiming unto himself, but what it tells is that someone somewhere is guilty and afraid but doesn’t want to be held accountable.”
The Minister believes that If an accusation is made against an individual and he/she believes that they are innocent, the only way out is to establish that person innocent and i allow the law to take its course, adding “avoiding investigation because he/she acted on the order of another person, in the thinking of the government, is a kind of admission of guilt.”
“When you are an officer or agent of this state, you are simply under obligation to obey lawful orders and when an order is unlawful, you have a legal duty to refrain, because your conduct will not be protected by law,” he reminded the Margibi Senator.
He noted that similar situation befell former Defense Minister Brownie Samukai and because of what he was reported to have done he was denied from taking seat as an elected Senator though people said he acted upon the order of the person who was his boss, then.
According to him, the same people who executed those things have come back today and want to turn the wheel around adding, ‘we believe that the right thing will be done.’
He quoted the Ministry of Justice as saying that the LACC and the Court will be left to absorb the state of the case, hoping somebody will be held accountable in the end.
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