PHOTO: Jonathan Paye-Layleh
By Our Reporter
“Liberia will never be a serious country and make progress if economic crimes are not taken seriously and dealt with drastically and decisively,” prominent Liberian Journalist Jonathan Paye-Layleh asserts.
In a statement released in Monrovia over the weekend, Mr. Paye-Layleh warned that “so long we don’t hold people to account for economic crimes, we are doomed.”
The statement by this well-respected Liberian Journalist, who has for decades been reporting for the US-based Associated Press (AP) news agency and the British Broadcasting System (BBC), comes amid widespread calls by Liberians for the establishment of economic crimes court along with a war crimes court.
“You can change government, you can change the cabinet, you can change the entire legislature, you can change the judiciary, nothing is going to happen. We will remain where we are,” Journalist Paye-Layleh stressed.
He added: “Those who steal from us and go with impunity will continue to influence decisions in government, in communities and everywhere using their stolen wealth.”
The veteran Liberian Journalist observed that the many, many year of impunity for economic crimes has worked against the interest of the citizens, who continue to languish in poverty who continue to be exploited by corrupt public officials.
“They will continue to take advantage of the poverty of our people and be their heroes. Let’s prosecute people for economic crimes, make them to restitute or put them in jail and see, if people will still be generous and flamboyant around here with their hard-earned, genuine, state-regulated incomes,” Mr. Paye-Layleh concluded.