By William Selmah wselmah@gmail.com
The government of Liberia has lifted travel bans on six officials of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), earlier named as persons of interest in the reported missing 16 billion Liberian dollars saga.
President Weah recently set up a panel of investigators to probe reports that 16 billion minted Liberian dollars brought into the country did not land into the vaults of the CBL.
The Ministry of Justice which is leading investigations into alleged scandal, consequently immediately issued a writ (Ne-Exeat Republica) to the Monrovia City Court to restrain some 35 officials of the CBL from leaving the country during the course of the investigation which was granted.
Among the six whose bans are lifted are Deputy Governors Charles Sirleaf (son of former President Sirleaf), Dr. Mounir Siaplay, CBL’s head of communications Cyrus Badio, Mustapha E. Sherman, among others.
The missing money hullabaloo took a dramatic twist following recent statements by President George Weah tacitly nullifying reports of any capital disappearance. The President’s inference was buttressed few hours later by CBL Governor Nathaniel Patray who called a news conference to inform the nation that absolutely no monies went missing, triggering cynics to preempt outcome of the probe.
“Record from the Crane Currency of Sweden, which was contracted to print the money, shows that the Crane delivered 15.5 billion through the Freeport and RIA between 2016 and 2018 and that all these monies were logged by the CBL and delivered to the reserve vaults of the CBL”, Governor Patray at the time said at a news conference.
The Bank Governor then spoke of taking steps to lift travel restrictions on 30 0f its staff members imposed by the Monrovia City Court as previously prayed for by the Justice Ministry, the lead investigators.
Pundits believe that lifting of the ban on some of the key persons of interest while outcome into the investigation is anxiously awaited is implicit that the probe is over and that no monies disappeared.