IPNEWS-Monrovia: President George Weah, has directed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dee-Maxwell Kemayah, to immediately investigate the circumstances leading to the issuance of Liberia’s Diplomatic passport to Sheik Bassirou Kante, who was recently arrested in the U.S., an Executive Mansion press statement says.
In his directive, the President ordered that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately stop the issuance of diplomatic passports to anyone unless otherwise authorized by him.
The Liberian Chief Executive also directed Minister Kemeyah to submit a full report detailing a review of how Liberian diplomatic passports are issued.
The report by the Foreign Minister is to be submitted within one week of the date of the President’s directive, May 10, 2022.
Also a few days ago, a popular Liberian businessman Sheik Bassirou Kante who was arrested in the US by FBI was found with a Diplomatic Liberia passport.
The Judge at the same time emphasized that Bassirou, alias Royal Gold, possessed multiple passports from various countries as well as fraudulent identification documents. He had unexplained assets and sources of large amounts of money and had close ties to government governments – particularly, the government of Liberia.
“The Defendant’s ties to Liberia, moreover, are especially deep. The email search warrant production revealed that the Defendant has a close personal relationship with the Vice President of Liberia. Moreover, during the execution of the search warrant at the Defendant’s residence on April 20, 2022, agents discovered that the Defendant was in possession of a Diplomatic Liberian passport. That the Defendant, who occupies no formal diplomatic position within the Liberian government (a fact the Defendant admitted at the detention hearing), was nonetheless in possession of a Diplomatic Liberian passport is powerful evidence of the strength of the Defendant’s connections to the highest levels of the Liberian government. The Defendant is, after all, a citizen of Liberia, not the United States. A connection like this, therefore, only enhances the Defendant’s already elevated risk of nonappearance,” Judge Sullivan noted.
It has not been established how Royal Gold who is not an employee of the Liberian government and neither does he work for any of Liberia’s foreign missions obtained a Liberian diplomatic passport.
Sheik Bassirou Kante – Arrested by FBI in the US for alleged money laundering
In the Diplomatic Passport the FBI found in the possession of Mr. Kante it had an inscription that he is the Chief of Office Staff in the Office of Montserrado County District #14 Representative, Vamuyan Konneh, but the lawmaker and his staff say they do not know Mr. Kante and neither is he the Chief of Office Staff in the Office of the Montserrado County lawmaker.
It is also not clear what the U.S. authorities meant by Bassirou had “close personal relationship with the vice president of Liberia.” This, according to them, was discovered after they obtained a warrant to search his email.
On Monday, May 9, 2022, the Office of Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor denied ever recommending or obtaining a Diplomatic Passport for Mr. Sheik Bassirou Kante who is arrested and undergoing investigation in the United States of America.
The Office categorically states at no time did it apply or recommend the issuance of said Diplomatic Passport to Mr. Kante, though Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor has interacted with him before.
The Office of the Vice President notes while the Vice President has so many friends across all sectors of society in her political sojourn, it will be travesty to logic to suggest that the Vice President is aware of the personal dealings of anyone she may have interacted with at any level.
As a champion for ensuring the actualization for rule of law, enhancing Democracy and encouraging Social Corporate responsibility for All well-meaning Liberians; the Vice President is of the opinion that the Rule of Law provides the opportunity for all allegations of wrongdoings to be adjudicated, the statement says.
