The Managing Editor/Publisher of FrontpageAfrica *FPA) newspaper and online publication, Mr. Rodney Sieh has denied President George Weah’s claim that he took US$10,000 from him during the 2017 elections to do promotional stories for the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
At a meeting with media executives and officials of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) on Wednesday, President Weah alleged that his CDC gave FPA US$10,000 to run stories for the party but the stories were not given prominence.
But in an Editorial on Thursday, the FPA Editor described the claim as “a bold-faced untruth”.
Mr. Sieh said the last time he met President Weah was back in 2013 when he visited him at the JFK Medical Center during his (Sieh) prison saga.
He added that in subsequent times “there was no discussion regarding any payment of any kind, and neither did Mr. Weah make such either through him or an intermediary.”
But in a sharp reaction to the Frontpage Editorial, Deputy Information Minister Eugene Fargon described Sieh’s dismissal of the President’s allegation as a “bold-face lie” amounts to “desecration” of the Liberian Presidency and an “insult:”.
At Wednesday’s meeting with the media, President Weah described Liberian Journalists Rodney Sieh and Paye-Layleh as his personal friends, emphasizing that “I am not against the press and can never be against the press.”
Below is full text of the FPA Editor’s Reaction to the Liberian leader’s claim:
FROM THE EDITOR: A BOLD-FACED UNTRUTH, PRESIDENT WEAH:
I have not heard the recording of what transpired today between President George Manneh Weah and Media executives. But I do find it conspicuously strange that the President chose to hold such a meeting without an invitation to me or my newspaper but chose to tell Journalists that he gave me $US10,000 for promotional purposes during the 2017 presidential campaign.
Had I been in such a meeting Or invited to it, I would have stood up to him and let him know that he is a born liar.
The last time I laid eyes on Mr. Weah was when I was lying in the hospital bed in JFK during my 2013 prison saga when he came to show support.
Prior to that was a 2005 interview I conducted with him in Washington, DC during which he stated that he was a French Citizen.
At the time when several people including some of his opponents in the race prevailed on me to release the audio of that recording on grounds that it could keep him from contesting I refused because of the potential for resentment from Mr. Weah’s supporters.
Besides those two encounters I have never sat in the same space or spoken to Mr. Weah except for one time during the elections when he called from an unknown number and asked me to please help him with his campaign.
I made it clear to him that I was not taking any sides in the elections but that we would cover his rallies as we were already doing with him and all the other candidates.
There was no discussion regarding any payment of any kind, and neither did Mr. Weah make such either through him or an intermediary.
I find it very disturbing that the President of a nation would make such claim in my absence and without an invitation to attend his meeting with Media execs.
Besides our newspaper came under numerous attacks during the campaign and he and his supporters made accusations that we were not writing favorable stories about him just as they are doing now.
In fact, it was our newspaper that has been behind most of the major investigative stories regarding Mr. Weah in the past few years even after he visited me in the hospital during my prison ordeal.
A simple google search will find out investigative stories about allegations in the FIFA probe, his child support issues in the USA and the link to former President Charles Taylor.
Mr. Weah should ask himself whether if he had made such a payment as he alleges would we have reported all those stories he and his supporters describe as bad and negative stories?
I am taking this matter very seriously will pursue defamation and legal routes to force the President to produce a recording or receipt or photographs of this alleged transaction where he supposedly made such a payment.
The President is obviously being misled into a really foolish mistake on a bid to deter us from doing our investigative work, particularly regarding his refusal to declare his assets, his various construction schemes and the money laundering scheme regarding the $US536 Million Loan they are trying to process with Asian conglomerates.
President Weah must hear me and hear me well, no amount of intimidation, threats of arson by his supporters and social media attacks which have included the creation of fake Facebook profiles and Whazzup messages bearing my name will deter me and my newspaper from our investigative work.
The President has told a bold face lie bordering that of a criminal and Liberia should be worried about this trend and the direction we are headed.