CDC to resist assets recovery team

With several of its top officials placed on U.S. sanctions for acts of corruption and human rights abuses, Liberia’s former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) feels threatened by assets recovery efforts initiated by President Joseph Nyumah Boakai.

By Lewis S. Teh

Monrovia, Liberia, March 18, 2024: President Joseph Nyumah Boakai’s newly established Asset Recovery Team has put officials of the former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in panic, with some loosely suggesting non-cooperation.

One of the CDC’s ring leaders in a purported plot to resist asset recovery efforts is Jefferson Koijee, the immediate past mayor of Monrovia during the CDC’s six-year rule.

Koijee has been leading the campaign to resist actions he termed inappropriate and illegal against former government officials.

“We like to inform Mr. Boakai that no member of the CDC will subject themselves to that so-called asset recovery task force,” he said over the weekend.

Mr. Koijee, the CDC’s National Secretary General, believes that any attempt to probe alleged acts of corruption committed in the CDC administration is a witch hunt.

During its administration, the CDC, led by former President George Manneh Weah, refused to correct the alleged wrongs that it claimed existed during the 12-year rule of its predecessor, Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

While the CDC installed its new party chairman, Mr. Janga Kowo, on Friday, 15 March 2024, in Oldest Congo, Koijee used the occasion to announce the CDC officials’ plan does not avail themselves to the asset recovery team.

“What you term as an asset recovery is total nonsense because those you line up to do that job have fallen short of everything,” he lamented.

Koijee said President Boakai and his government must focus on the task given to them. He did not say how asset recovery does not include the government’s task but insisted that past CDC officials should not be deterred by asset recovery.

He further told CDCians working in the Boakai-led administration to have no fear because the government is not Boakai’s agency.

He alleged that the new government is witch-hunting CDCians, thereby urging it to desist from witch-hunting his partisans.

“If you think you can harm our people you end up becoming the collateral damage,” he said.

“Government is not Mr. Boakai’s enterprise, and as such, none of you, his officials, should dare try to go after our people,” he continued.

“Don’t push us. We have what it takes to make you feel uncomfortable. Any attempt to deny President Weah’s request to provide him security we ourselves will protect him,” Koijee noted.

While the CDC insists that it will not submit to the asset recovery team, it said it was extolling the government through the Legislature for passing a resolution to establish a War and Economic Crimes Court.

Meanwhile, the CDC appointed Janga Augustus Kowo as the new party chairman following Mr. Mulbah Morlu’s recent resignation.

Kowo’s leadership role within the party signifies a new chapter in the CDC’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its structure.