LiNCA Boss Dismisses Corruption Allegations -Describes Media Reports as Deliberate Lies 

By H Matthew Turry

MONROVIA – The Chairman of the Liberia National Commission on Arms (LiNCA) James Fromayan is doing perhaps what his media accusers could not do to him: follow the facts, talk to sources before getting into action.

According to him, he has been pursuing reporters who distributed ‘unfair assessment of LiNCA’, following up with their bosses, providing step by step explanation and financial details including documents  to rubbish reports he said are “a deliberate attempt to tarnish the Commission image.”

Addressing a news Conference Tuesday, 12 August 2025 in Monrovia, Fromayan said, for instance, in March, Kool FM “took on us for about a week that we had corrupt people at the Commission here,” but when he later took the matter to the CEO of the institution, the reporter could not justify his accusations.  

“Hearing the reporter calling us all sorts of names on radio, I opted to do a letter to the CEO Christopher Onanuga complaining his staff, Nathaniel Vah, while we are looking at the option of going to court,” he narrated. “When the CEO, Christopher Onanuga, met with me with his entire staff including him, Nathaniel Vah, at the Kool FM office, I repeated my warning that if Nathaniel Vah did not retract all the garbage he has written about my character and my colleagues, he will not go unpunished.”

The LiNCA boss said when the CEO asked Mr. Vah if he knew him or had his contacts, and why he could not contact the institution before going into making allegations of corruption against them, Vah admitted he did not attempt to make a contact.

“So the CEO told him what Vah did was wrong and that he had to apologize, and he did,” Fromoyan said. “But I told the CEO that was not the end; Vah malign our characters on the airwave so he should not come behind closed door alone to offer apologies, if he wanted to undo the damage he cause on our character.”

“Up to now, we still have the case before the PUL,” former National Elections Commission Chairperson further explained. “I pursue all the processes before thinking about going to court. All the communications I did to the CEO, I forwarded to the PUL president Julius Kanuba and I told him that he needed to investigate Nathaniel Vah otherwise we will go to court.”        

He said the responsibility of a journalist is to follow the basic rules of journalism in their reportage by hearing from both sides of the story.

For Freedom FM, Fromayan also narrated, there was a letter written, giving them 72 hours or “they will face court action. Everything they said they will prove it in court”.

The LiNCA Director spoke of the case of the blogger, ‘Prophet Key’, describing him “a type of creature that is cursed by his mother and father”.

“If you are insulting a woman, you are insulting all. I don’t dignify him,” he noted, before turning on to Verity Newspaper which once carried the headline, “Financial Discrepancies, Noncompliance—Leaked Internal Audit Report on LiNCA Reveals”.

According to Fromayan, he got no idea about such an audit report referenced by the newspaper, and what’s in it, but noted that in any case, it is the right of the institution respond to whatever is in it.

“Besides those IAA agents that can come, they don’t have authority on their own to release audit report,” he said.  

According to the LiNCA boss, due to the unethical behaviour of the assigned internal Audit Agency staff at the Commission, Llyod Togba, who was linked to the audit report situation, he was since recalled by the Internal Audit Agency.    

The story is completely false and misleading, he continued, adding that he was invited by the  of the Kingdom of Luxembourg, His Excellency Georges Mischo, to attend the Global Government Summit 2025, on “Shaping the Future of Social Innovation” and bulk of the cost was on the host country.

In a related development, Chairman James Fromayan has spoken of enormous progress at the Liberia National Commission on Arms.

“I took over the Commission July 10, 2024,” he recounted. “We took over the Commission very dilapidated. The building itself was filthy. Due to the conditions we met the commission in, we decided to give the commission a facelift. We did the furnishing of offices.”

Continuing, he said: “Also, when we came, there were no vehicles. When I was leaving the Commission in 2018, we left not less than four vehicles, but when I came back in July 2024, we have to start renting vehicles for a period of time and because of that, we were able to purchase seven vehicles in the period of time. Those vehicles include three (3) SUV and four (4) pickups.”

Fromayan alarmed that in the face of what he and team are doing at the LiNCA, there are those who think that the best they can do is to give the bad image of the Commission to the public without any research.

“That’s unfortunate,” he asserted.