-But who wants to kill Hot Pepper Publisher Philipbert Brown?
By Frank Sainworla, Jr. fsainworla@yahoo.com
“My biggest worry is about the safety of my wife and children who are being threatened with death and kidnapping,” says the Publisher of Liberia’s local daily, HOT PEPPER, Philipbert Brown, the missing billions Whistleblower who has reported threats on his life and that of his family.
In an interview with www.newspublictrust.com on Friday, Mr. Brown since he revealed that containers of nine Billion Liberian dollars had gone missing and that a government probe was underway, his family have been receiving death threats by unknown persons.
This is a revelation that the Liberian Justice Ministry later confirmed in a press release signed by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Cllr. F. Musah Dean last Monday, September 17, 2018. That confirmation was later buttressed by the government’s chief spokesman, Information Minister Eugene Nagbe that the missing billions being investigated by government was in fact close to 16 billion Liberian dollars, an equivalent of over US$100 million.
The missing billions scandal has sparked tensions in the country and anger among many Liberians on all sides of the political divide, with many of them urging: “bring back our money”.
The Hot Pepper newspaper Publisher said as a result of the death and kidnap threat, his children have stayed home and have not gone to school while his wife, who runs a store in Monrovia, has not gone to her place of business in the past week.
According to him, an armed man had visited his wife’s store making life-threatening comments, something that prompted him to call the Inspector General of Police to provide protection for him and his family.
Since then, he said nearly two dozen armed police officers have been deployed at his residence for the past few days.
Who wants to kill Philipbert Brown?
Who exactly are behind the reported death threats against the Liberian newspaper Publisher is not yet known.
When asked who he thought wanted his head, Mr. Brown said, “it is difficult to say. It could point in so many directions; it could be from the past or current government people,” the local newspaper Publisher who was a fierce critic of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the dying days of her administration told this medium.
He said in recent years, he really having felt safe as the threat level against him was very high towards the end of the Sirleaf government, but it reduced with the change of regime back in January this year.
“Now the security threat level against me is back to where it was under Ellen,” since he revealed information of the missing billions, the Hot Pepper newspaper Publisher said.
Meanwhile, newspaper Publisher Brown has informed www.newspublictrust.com that he has now written the Liberian Justice Ministry officially informing it about the death threat against himself and his family.
He said he is also forwarding copies to the United States Embassy in Monrovia, the United Nations, the International Justice Group and other institutions.