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Monrovia – Former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has debunked recent media report quoting her as saying she is too old and could not remember circumstances surrounding the printing and reported disappearance of some 16 billion Liberian dollar banknotes.
The media report which has since been trending on social media, claims international forensic investigators hired by the United States Embassy near Monrovia through the USAID, had queried ex-president Sirleaf on what she knew about the LRD16 billion that has reportedly gone missing, and that the former president told the investigative panel that she was too old to have remembered any such thing.
But amid celebrations marking her 80th birth anniversary Monday, in a brief interview with BBC Liberia-based stringer Jonathan Paye-Layleh, Sirleaf said those that peddled such report out to the public need to go and look at themselves, saying, “do I look like someone to say I am 80 years and I can’t remember, come on.”
She termed the report as a propaganda, adding that it is the handiwork of a certain local newspaper, which she referred to as being a “foolish paper”, which trades in sensationalism, adding that such sensationalism is not true.
Sirleaf, who said she was accustomed to the paper’s sensational reportage, insists that there is absolutely no fact to the recent report quoting her as saying she was too old to remember, in apparent response to investigators probing the ‘missing billions’ saga.
“I am very strong, my mind is functioning well, and you know, that’s straightly propaganda and nobody should listen to that,” Sirleaf said.
She recalled that what actually transpired was that some members of the international investigative panel probing the saga regarding the ‘missing’ 16 billion dollars in Liberian currency, had gone to ask her some questions and she said to them that while serving as president of Liberia, everything she did and every decision and action she took was documented and she referred the investigators to such records which she said are at the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs.
“…Every decision I have made, every decision I have taken, it’s not by word of mouth, it’s by paper, it’s by document – anybody wants to know anything I have done, please go to the records of the Ministry of State, it’s written there”, Sirleaf said she told the investigators, adding that the records will give full clarification on anything the investigative panel wants to find out about her transactions when she served as president.
She noted that she does not just talk, but writes as well, adding that what she told the investigators was that they should firstly go to the records at the Ministry of State and view same and when need be for clarification, she will make herself available to respond to such concerns.
