MONROVIA – Ms. Veronical Mamie Doe’s decision to reject former president George M. Weah’s contributions towards the funeral of her late mother has been trending in and outside of Liberia for the past few days. And as public reactions swirl over her rejection of Weah’s gift of two cows, 50 bags of rice and US$5,000 as initial contributions towards the funeral of her mother, former first lady Nancy Bohn Doe, and the state burial of her late father, former President Samuel Kanyon Doe, she has opened a can of warms. She has been outlining the reasons why she refused the resident’s gifts. She also pointed at Grand Gedeh County Zoe Pennue as the main cause of her mother’s demise, describing him as patently “evil”, as THE ANALYST reports.
Mamie Doe spilled more than a mouthful of beans when she appeared over the weekend on Spoon TV Live Talk Show to express her gripes over how succeeding governments stripped her mother, Nancy Doe, of her dignity as a former first lady, depriving her of a national recognition befitting her status.
She began: “My purpose of coming here is to give my mother a voice, which was never heard, and never respected. Everything was stripped away from her because there was a system set up to hold her down. It wasn’t about a particular government, but a system. She lived as if she was never, ever first lady of Liberia. No benefits, no pensions, no privileges, no acknowledgments. Her diplomatic passport was stripped from her, and she died with an ordinary passport because there were systems and barriers put in place. Only a president could have intervened in her case?”
She continued: “The second reason is to reveal how Zoe Pennue was instrumental in the demise of my mother. Not only was he instrumental in tormenting her while she was alive, he is going out of his way for us not to have a burial. It’s not the government, it’s Zoe Emmanuel Pennue. He tormented that lady for so long. Even after her death Zoe is still being a menace in her burial process.”
Weah’s “Inappropriate” Gesture
To clear the air of controversy hovering over the public space regarding her reaction of the funeral gifts from former President Weah, Veronica Doe said she doesn’t have any gripe with the former Liberian leader, rather she was taken aback by the manner in which he tried to portray her late mother as a liar, and for the suggestive manner in which he asked her to come to his place when he visited the late Mrs. Doe’s compound to sympathize with the family.
“I had never met the former President before. All I expected from him was to say he was sorry because it’s at funerals that people bury their hatchets. I just really wanted him to say sorry about the treatment of my mom, not so much for me. A simple sorry would have done it. But when the conversation started, it was implied that my mother was a liar, because he was saying that he met her three times, when in fact it was only one time. And when he sat down, he pretty much said he met my mother three times, and so, I was just fuming. That’s when I turned around and spoke to the Ambassador Isaac Nyenaboe that I can’t accept his gift. And then he said, ‘ok, we will talk about it later’.
“What really broke the camel’s back was when former president Weah turned to me and said, ‘I thought you were coming to my place.’ I turned around to my uncle and said, ‘This program has gone on for too long; it needs to end now.’ My uncle then walked up to the convoy and the protocol, and that’s when the former president got up and he did a side hug and then when he walked to the car, they told him they were not ready to go yet, and he sat back down. So I reechoed that I wouldn’t accept the gift, and he said ‘ok’. What I didn’t want to do was to cause an embarrassment.”
Pressing her further, host Stanton Witherspoon asked, “Who told you to go and visit with the former president?”
She answered: “I don’t want to go into that, but a lot of things were probably thrown out there in terms of scheduling. So, when that was said, was ‘it’s absolutely unacceptable’. This was someone who I had never ever met, and besides, given the current environment, I am the one who’s bereaved; I don’t go anywhere. I stay in my house. So, I didn’t think anything of it. All I said was ‘really?’. And he said ‘yes’. And then I turned around to my uncle and said, ‘This program is going on too long, it needs to end’. That’s when he got up and spoke to the envoy.
“Who brought up this discussion that you should consider going to Weah’s place?” Stanton Witherspoon further pressed his guest Mamie Doe.
“Well, it’s my uncle Isaac Nyenebo, because he’s the one making all these arrangements, multitasking with the government. So I didn’t take it in bad faith. The reason I objected was because I had never met this person, and also, I am the one who is grieving. You can’t go to someone’s house and present yourself as the grieving child. I never entertained it, and never thought much of it. I don’t think it was done in bad faith, but I was already annoyed,” Mamie Doe said.
“Weah not my enemy, Zoe Pennue is”
Explaining the Weah encounter further, Mamie Doe said former president Weah is not her enemy, and she would have appreciated his presence even more if her mother had been alive, because Mrs. Nancy Doe always held the former President in the highest esteem.
“President Weah is not my enemy. Zoe Pennue is,” she said furhter. “We want former President Weah as an ally and a friend; we want him to be ok. It’s just that I cannot sit there in my right mind, when my mom is deceased, and dealing with that trauma, and knowing what she went through the six years. I even said to him, ‘I really wish my mom was here, because her sitting next to you now would have made her day. And he said, ‘ok, I understand’. She and my father loved him so much. I don’t even understand the love they had for him. After everything, she still wanted to be ok with him. Former President Weah is not my enemy. I believe everything has been influenced by Zoe. So, I cannot be here calling governments’ names because I know what the source was: and it was Zoe Pennue.”
Continuing, Mamie Doe said with an unhidden tinge of bitterness: “I am sure people always wanted to help my mother but Zoe Pennue has blocked her. In addition to the systems that have been against her, Zoe has been the enforcer. He’s truly evil. Because we’re first cousins, people from his side visit us. And they would say, ‘when we heard that your mother had passed away, Zoe was celebrating. He was happy. He said, unless Veronica Mamie Doe comes and holds my feet, I am going to make sure that no one from the government talks to her. I am going to make sure no one acknowledges her because I have power over these governments. He said, let them go and bury her at Center Street at night’. So, he was celebrating. I know how much he was tormenting her. I banned him to not come to the wake, to not come to the burial. Stay away from us because you caused this. The only thing you’re going to be doing is laughing.”
She added also: “Zoe’s mother is my father’s oldest sister. So, we are first cousins. The last time I spoke to Zoe was 2023 because he’s always having family reconciliation, and also he has my father’s documents. He promised my mother in 2023 to bring my father’s documents. He promised to help my mom with the court cases, the ones with Varney Sherman, Vamoma, ECOWAS, that he would ensure everything was settled in one month. But I said to her, please don’t go to him because this guy keeps saying this same thing for the past 15 years and every time you meet him, you end up getting ill. She still went. He gave my mother $300 to buy white sheep and kill it in her yard. Someone advised my mom not to do it because people will sacrifice others spiritually with sheep. My mom instead bought and cooked goat, but when he came he refused to eat the goat meat. The next day she went to his house to do the reunification celebration and they ate everything and she said to his mom, ‘Aunty Deshield, I want you guys to come to my house’. And then the lady said to her, ‘before I go back to your house, let’s wait for a year and see where we are. In a year if you’re ok, then we will come back and celebrate’. My mom was definitely ill that night. She thought she was going to die. She said she felt like she was being roasted on fire. She couldn’t breathe and called her pastor who said, ‘I thought I told you not to go’.
“So the pastor told her to go to Zoe’s house, get on her knees and beg him to release her. So my mom did that and then he said ok let me go in the room and come back. He returned and came back and said, I have released you small. She still wasn’t feeling better so he said wait small. He helped her in the sofa and waited a bit, that’s how she felt better and I brought her back to England right away. From that day she never recovered.
Mamie Doe further narrated during the Spoon TV show: “When my mom returned to Liberia in 2004 she was approached by now Senator Edwin Snowe. I think the government was doing renovations on houses that were bombed during the war. So he came to her and said, ‘Mrs. Doe, I am from the LPRC and we’d like to do an estimate’. He sent an engineer to her house and they looked at it and said it was about US$37,000, and he said, ‘sure, we’re going to do it’. The next week no one came, so she called him. She said, ‘my son, you said you were going to do this’. He said, ‘sorry, ma. You have to talk to your son, Zoe Pennue. I don’t want to be involved in family business’.
“And then, prior to that, during the Amos Sawyer administration, he said the Doe family should come and claim his cars and stuff. And Zoe, no one nominated him, went ahead and claimed all of our cars. He was driving the white cars, the red cars. When we used to see Zoe, he used to be wearing our father’s clothes.
“For my family and I, our only enemy is Zoe Emmanuel Pennue. He is wicked to the core. Now that she has died, he is still being disruptive, and that is not right. I need people to know what Zoe is saying that everyone is under his control. That’s the real reason I am here. I couldn’t wait until the burial because that would have been pointless. The Grand Gedeh Legislative Caucus and the representatives have been rallying around me with support. I am grateful for that. And also in America, they are doing the fundraising knowing how my mom was treated,” she said.
“What I learned from the elders is that they knew what my mom what going through; they knew what Zoe was doing but they couldn’t do anything. And I am asking why? They would say this to me one-on-one in confidence, but when they congregate, it’s like they side with Zoe; except for Ambassador Nyenebo. He never wavered on my stance for Zoe Pennue. He respected that 100 percent. So, one of them would say, ‘I understand what you’re saying’, but as soon as other people are there, they’re all with them, trying to tell me to just move on and forgive. How? How can I forgive that guy for what he did? The properties don’t belong to him. The things you hear in these Nollywood movies is what my life has become. Zoe has used other actors in the government and weaponized them against us. I cannot be calling people’s names because I know Zoe is underneath everything.
“We probably would have had a better relationship with all the presidents, with all the administrators, with everyone; so, I can’t be mad with individual people. Yes, I am not happy with their actions and I will react if I feel offended, and I will say ouch if you’re hurting me. You can’t be hurting me and I close my mouth. I can’t do that. And I definitely cannot do that when it involves my mother. I am her voice. I don’t intend to really have any personal friends after this. Once my mother is buried, everything is buried with her. But people will hear what that guy did to her. She’s a former First Lady for God sake, and this is how she was treated, really bad.
“Those traditionalists, where were they when uncle Chayee took my mother to court saying that she wasn’t the First Lady of Liberia? It was like a two-year battle. They sat and told me forget it and leave it to God, knowing very well they don’t know God. They are demanding that I apologize to Zoe. And I am thinking, in your dreams. Apart from Zoe Pennue, we don’t have any grievances. I have no enemies apart from Zoe of course.
The Funeral and Officialdom Interventions
According to Mamie Doe, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, his Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung, and even former President Weah have shown exception concerns about the Doe Family plight during this period of their bereavement.
“When Vice President Koung called me I was in the UK, this was before I travelled. He called me to sympathize with me on behalf of the government. And honestly, it was just like speaking to an old friend. He was very genuine, he was very sincere, he was worried about the situation, and I just explained some things and he asked me to call Zoe Pennue, to which I said it was a no-go. I just said, ‘look, I cannot call him, the guy is responsible for the death of my mother’.
“Yes, he asked me to call Zoe Pennue because he wanted to make peace. Who wouldn’t want to make peace between warring siblings or relatives? Anyone would, and that’s what he wanted. And I wish I could have given him that. But I have to be true to myself. There is no way I can call Zoe, to say what? When I explained my position to him, the thing I liked about him was that he understood. He said, ‘oh, it’s deeper problem’. So, that’s the reason he addressed it because he understood it. But the elders who have been firsthand witnesses to the rivalry that has been going on for ages didn’t understand. So, I am thinking, someone else, who had just heard 10 to 15 minutes about what I am going through would say he understands and suggested a way forward after the burial. So, he was hopeful that he understood my position, because he understood what was hurting my heart. But then, these elders who have been through a lot of the meetings, seemed not to understand. I don’t want to generalize, but some of the elders had been from my mom but they had been overpowered by those who are in Zoe’s pocket,” she said.
Mamie Doe further disclosed that the Boakai-led government is doing everything possible to ensure a decent, state funeral for her parents, and that she is excited how President Boakai has personally engaged the family during this sad period of their bereavement, disclosing that the Liberian leader even made a personal contribution toward the funeral proceedings.
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