-Accuses the Tweah Brothers, Bill Tweahway, Health Minister of Having Hands in His “Murder”

IPNEWS – Ms. Musu Leela Kerkula, the girl, who was with the late Emmanuel Barthan Nyeswa on the night it was alleged that he fell from his backdoor to the concrete floor, leading to his death, has spoken out publicly for the first time in three years.

Appearing on Spoon TV’s late evening (Liberian Time) show on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, Ms. Kerkula, who said she is a “friend to the deceased” and was with him when he met his untimely demise, claimed that he never fell from the balcony or backdoor but that “he was murdered,” by whom she doesn’t know. Notwithstanding, she pointed fingers at specifically three men — including Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah, Norris Tweah (younger brother  of Samuel) and the former Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA), Mr. Bill Tweahway. She also mentioned the name of the Minister of Health, Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah of also playing a part in her late boyfriend’s death.

Leela, who spoke to the network from an undisclosed location, began: “Barthan was my friend; we were really close and we used to talk stuffs.”

How It All Started

She narrated that sometime in September 2020, the late, who was the head of Liberia’s Internal Audit Agency (LIAA) up to his death, had mentioned to her that he and others were going to Ganta to complete some audit reports. Back from Ganta, she asked him how did the workshop or whatever they had gone for, go. “People are brave, Leela,” she recalled him telling her after he had also said that everything went well in Ganta. “I said what,” Leela asked. “Some people are really brave in stealing. Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah, that woman is corrupt,” she quoted him saying. According to Leela, the late further told her that what he had on record on her was really annoying, including allegedly having multiple payrolls with ghost names on them, etc.

Narrating further, she said the late had also told her that apart from the audit report that had to do with the Health Minister, there was another one, which was bigger than what he had told her about. And this one had to do with the Liberian government’s Consolidated Account. According to her, Nyeswa had remarked: “But that one, it won’t be easy.”

Ms. Kerkula also mentioned that the late had told her that the Minister of Finance, Samuel Tweah and others were not forthcoming towards the audit process. “He said to me Tweah had called him to work with Albert Peters because he (Peters) was being stubborn,” she stated.

According to her, one evening Nyeswa had told her that a friend of his had called and told him that people were after his life and that he should try and leave the country. “I said to him, do you believe it, he said ‘Well, I want to but the names the person called’ he was finding it difficult to believe.” He further told her that once he had completed what he was doing, he would leave the country, which was fine by her.

“Then on October 2^nd, it was on a Friday, we woke up to the news of the deaths of Albert Peters and Gifty Lama.” Ms. Kerkula further narrated that the deceased had advised her to not panic and that she should remain normal as behaving otherwise would have tipped off people who had bad intention against him.

You can follow the rest of her interview here beginning at 23 minutes, 20 seconds here

The Independent Probe reached out to Mr. Norris Tweah, who once served as one of the principle deputies at the Ministry of Information and now a senior official at the University of Liberia, for a respond to the allegations against him and his brother.

Norris said he was writing a book about his interactions with his friend Barten. He added: “He was a very good person; he was friend and brother.” He also stated that he had long waited to hear the side of Leela. He went further to say that he thinks Leela was being paid to tarnish his brother’s reputation.

He then stated that few days following Barthan’s death, he (Norris) had written and published a piece and in that article, are his responses to the allegations Leela had made against him.

Attached is Norris_Tweah_Remembering_Barthan_Nyeswa account