Like Father, Like Son-Dealing with the Rants of Speaker Chambers and his Director for Press: A Rejoinder to Juxtaposing Mittal’s $60M Wedding and Its New MDA in Liberia Published in the Daily Graphic

By Julius T. Jaesen II

The publication of a revealing cash receipt by FrontPage Africa and other news outlets exposing the Speaker of the House of Representative, Bohfal Chambers, formerly, Jallah Layinan, of receiving 500,000 United States Dollars from High Power Exploration as bribery to reject ArcelorMittal’s deal and to, under the cover of darkness, ratify a concession agreement between HPX and the Government of Liberia, Speaker Chambers, being furious and trying to save face from his scandalous and disgusting deeds, has elected to unleash his propaganda machinery headed by his Director for Press, George D. Watkins, to throw rants and tarnishes at ArcelorMittal, a globally reputed steel giant operating in Liberia.

But as corrupt as Speaker Chambers is, who gained his public admiration – even though now shamefully diminished – for speaking against public sector corruption and dishonesty during erstwhile President Sirleaf’s administration, so is his Director for Press, George Watkins.

It can be recalled that on September 28, 2016, George D. Watkins, the Owner and Publisher of the Daily Graphic, now Director for Press in the Office of Speaker Chambers, along with one T. Benedict D. Togba, knowingly and criminally collaborated with some fiscal miscreants at the Finance Department of the Central Bank of Liberia to falsify the receipt and Letter Head of the New Vision Newspaper to steal a cheque from CBL in the amount of US $680.00 belonging to the New Vision Newspaper.

Interestingly, upon hearing this sickening news of one of its own, the Press Union of Liberia, under the leadership of the late Mr. Kamara Abdullai Kamara, conducted preliminary hearings during which time, Speaker Chambers’ Director for Press and belly-driven surrogate conveyor, a man with no ounce of integrity, George D. Watkins, disgracefully pleaded guilty to forgery, impersonation, and theft. Sadly, the Press Union of Liberia, after several investigations, suspended for a time indefinitely the membership of a consummate and disgraced criminal, George D. Watkins, who bowed in shame to a guilty verdict until he left the PUL’s premises.

Below is the link to the news story published in 2016 by the revered FrontPage Africa evidencing the disgusting criminality of a man who proudly sits in the Office of  Speaker Chambers as a Press Director and with whom the Speaker is proud to associate.

Two Journalists Face Legal Action for Alleged Forgery at CBL – FrontPageAfrica (frontpageafricaonline.com)

No nationally condemned scoundrel like George D. Watkins will ever run a newspaper that should be a watchdog in society, let alone work in the Office of the Speaker of the Legislature, in any serious democracy anywhere in the world. There is an African adage that says, “Like father, like son.” So, it goes without gainsaying that as corrupt as Speaker Chambers is, it is with his pick of personnel to help him run the affairs of his office.

The once morally saint Bohfal Chambers, who was loved by many Liberians across the country for shouting out loudly against the misgivings and excesses that riddled the leadership of former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and his predecessors, Hon. Alex Jenekai Tyler and Hon. James Emmanuel Nuquay has now receded into graveyard silence whilst our people feel the pain of wrecked thievery, incompetent leadership, and the rising cost of living on an industrial scale.

Under the leadership of Speaker Chambers, the scandalous Elton and Elboma loan deals with two 419 companies were passed without any due diligence, amid increased public outcries, but yet he presided over the rejection of the ArcelorMittal deal, which is in the best interest of the administration of President George Weah and our idled youth. Thankfully, the American Embassy near Monrovia had to intervene to alert the government of President Weah that the duo companies (Elton & Elboma) were scams of companies and should be mindful of money launderers.

Liberians and the media were even hopeful that Speaker Chambers’ responses, speaking through his ventriloquist puppet, George D. Watkins, would have, with the utmost energy, vigor, and respect for the sanity of that office he shamelessly sits in as Speaker, addressed the stinking allegations of bribery and corruption levied against his person and the office. But sadly, he squandered that opportunity and resorted to vulgarism or rant peddling amid hearted intellectual exchange concerning damning allegations heaped at him.

The fact that Speaker Chamber’s Office can even reference manufactured lies and propaganda of the company in France and its owner allegedly spending over 60 million on a wedding in Spain is indicative that Speaker Chambers and his band of legislative rascals have no genuine claims against ArcelorMittal-Liberia on its corporate practices.

We thought, even if attempting not to speak to allegations the Speaker is embroiled in, the press release would have green-lighted the public on ArcelorMittal’s alleged bad corporate practices if any exist, for which the Legislature rejected the amended deal. But sadly, they failed to do so and resorted to the face-saving of a corrupt and incompetent Speaker.

The Liberian people, to whom all power is inherent and for whom the government was elected, demand honest responses from Speaker Bohfal Chambers other than his absorbed reference to a wedding in Spain that answers not the US $500,000 he received from HPX to reject Mittal’s deal and to covertly ratify the same HPX.

The refusal of Speaker Chambers to respond to these grave allegations thereby resorting to vulgarism and blasting Mittal, who has no hand in the leaked cash receipt exposing him, through his attacked dogs and pawns, is a scare tactic to save face by introducing something far removed from the crux of the discussion at hand.