Plans Unearthed to Politically Destroy Koijee -Cllr. Verdier, Others Implicated; But Spoon TV Opens Pandora Box

In the aftermath of reports circulating in the country that Monrovia City Police Director Colonel Thomas Garwo recently left Liberia to seek political asylum in the United States, and that he was spilling the beans against Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Tamba Koijee regarding his alleged involvement in the attacks on former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott, a new revelation backed by audio recordings from Cllr. Arthur Johnson points to a sinister syndicate perpetrated by former TRC Commissioner Jerome Verdier and others to “politically kill” the future of Mayor Koijee and jeopardize his prospects and means of reinstating the government after the next election. But Spoon TV’s Thursday, May 4, 2023 talk show aired in reaction to Cllr. Johnson’s revelation has now thrown the whole Koijee conspiracy theory into a frenzied tailspin.

According to Major Koijee’s lead counsel, Arthur Johnson, who has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Cllr. Verdier for manufacturing falsehoods against his client, the story about Monrovia City Police Director Garwo being seen in a photo with Mr. Sheikh Sackor is a deeply contrived scheme to not only get Mayor Koijee on the Magnitsky sanctions, but to incapacitate him from ensuring a second-term victory for President George Weah and the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in the October 10, 2023 polls.

Producing a string of audio recordings as prima facie evidence during a press conference held Thursday in Monrovia, Cllr. Johnson named Eugene Fahngon, Stanton Witherspoon, Cllr. Jerome Verdier, Alex Williams and Sheikh Sackor as the planners of the scheme to make the country look bad in the eyes of the international community and its traditional ally, the United States of America.

“As you are aware, sometime back, a month ago, the Lord Mayor Jefferson Tamba Koijee was accused by Counselor Jerome Verdier as being the perpetrator of the killing that took place at the residence of former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott. In that process we represented the mayor and we made several appearances that had to do with the response of the Mayor regarding the allegation. And today, history has indeed set it right that the mayor was falsely accused. But interestingly, what we said in that particular press conference or other press conferences was that this was a conspiracy planned and masterminded by propagandists who find ways to defame a particular group of persons or a particular individual for their own political reasons, specifically based on their whim and caprices.

“There is a plan to make sure that, because Jefferson Koijee is identified as one of the serious, strong pillars of this government, and that, as a means of getting rid of Koijee, specifically finding a means of getting him on sanctions, or finding a way to kill him politically that he will not have a future in this country, which will jeopardize the prospects and means of reinstating the government after the next election, so a plan was hatched to get rid of Jefferson Koijee,” Cllr. Johnson averred.

Koijee’s legal counsel said the plan to damage Koijee is rooted in history, beginning with one Madam Jestina Taylor who was used to concort lies against the Monrovia City Mayor.

“One of the ways was for her to get out of the country, seek asylum, falsify the facts and misinform the United States Government as a basis of gaining asylum, and as a basis to make sure that the mayor is considered to be a person who is engaged in human rights violations in the country. That plan has failed, because one of the interesting things is that with the United States Government, whatever representation you make at the level of the State Department, the Embassy has the capacity to investigate, to know whether or not the statements being made are true.

“Jestina Taylor’s argument has now become history. That was Plan A. It did not materialize, and so, Plan B was institutionalized. And Plan B has failed, which is, the situation at the level of Gloria Musu Scott’s house should be put on Jefferson Koijee, to process little facts and mix them with a lot of falsehood which is propaganda, and then just spin it that he is the one responsible.

“As far as we are concerned, the criminal investigation is unfolding. The police are yet to decide who is to be charged, we are still waiting. And, the facts have revealed that our client is not, and cannot be part of such a thing.

“Still, because Plan B did not materialize, and the features of Plan B, that is, using the Gloria Musu Scott scenario to destroy the political future and the political status of Mayor Jefferson Koijee, another plan was masterminded as a supplement.

“Recently, the Director of the Monrovia City Police left this country, April 12 to the 30^th. When he went to the United States, a plan was indeed masterminded that he was engaging the United States to create a situation in which he must not come back to Liberia, and he must lie against the mayor, that the mayor had been engaged in killings and doing other things in this country. They asked him to appear on Spoon TV. That was the plan. They will get his wife out of this country, and then the process of political asylum begins.

“The first person who was engaged in that is one of our senior brothers who I respect so much, the Chairman of the TRC, Cllr. Jerome Verdier. He had talked to Thomas Garwo, asking him that he will create the story and send it to Congress. Verdier said he has been doing this same thing for others including Alex Williams who is recorded in this audio saying he elevated his lies and got asylum, and that Thomas Garwo who is City Police Director should do the same.

“Also, in these audios, you will hear our friend and brother Sheik Sackor who is telling the City Police Director that they will prepare a letter of resignation for the City Police Director. Once he resigns, he will be taken on Spoon TV platform and disclose what he had been coached to say. Then he will get the first US$10,000 from Stanton Witherspoon.

“You see what we are doing to this country? I always told you that I am a lawyer and I don’t speak in the absence of evidence. When we received all of the evidence, we took weeks analyzing the evidence. Now, we are communicating with our counterparts in the United States on the lawsuit regarding the allegations that were made against the Mayor from the Gloria Musu Scott case.

“The individuals in this particular audio that are involved in the scheme are Eugene Fahngon, Stanton Witherspoon, Cllr. Jerome Verdier, Alex Williams, Sheikh Sackor. This is not they-say. This is evidence for you to make a reasonable judgment so that you will understand why Jefferson Koijee is a target. The fact that McGill is out, if you get Jefferson Koijee, CDC is out. This is not politics. This is about the country,” Cllr. Johnson calmly remarked.

Cllr Johnson would later play all of the audio recordings during the press conference, where a voice seemingly identical to Cllr. Jerome Verdier was heard explaining to the Monrovia City Police Director the process of seeking asylum, and that he (Cllr. Verdier) would facilitate the process as he is widely respected as a former Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Meanwhile, the host of Spoon Talk, Stanton Witherspoon, last evening produced a trove of audio recordings where the reported voice of Monrovia City Police Director Garwo is heard revealing how the Monrovia City Corporation recently received huge consignment of assault rifles and other weapons when in fact the Liberia National Police is not equipped with such armaments. The voice reported to be that of Director Garwo said it is the same cache of weapons from which a few arms were displayed by the LNP recently as being discovered in Monrovia.

All efforts to contact Spoon Talk’s host and other panelists proved futile up to press time. However, details will appear in our subsequent publication.