Liberia’s President George Manneh Weah has ordered a ministerial inquiry into a case of alleged rape at the Liberian Embassy in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
Front Page Africa reports that President Weah has instructed both Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Kemayah and Justice Minister Musa Dean to address the alleged sexual abuse of a seven-year-old girl on the premises of the Liberian Embassy in Abuja.
Disclosing the development on Spoon Talk, an online platform that is also simultaneously broadcast live on several radio stations in Monrovia, the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel McGill said that the situation has drawn the President’s attention.
“That issue (rape) is a very serious issue. The President is very serious about that. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice will jointly speak to that very soon. This has drawn the attention of the President. The President doesn’t take the issue of rape lightly, so the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice will speak to the public very shortly”, the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs said recently on the Spoon Talk December 28, 2021 Edition.
During a recent press conference in Monrovia, the Minister Counselor for Press and Public Affairs at the Liberian Embassy in Abuja, Nat Bayjay, reported a sexual abuse incident of his young daughter that occurred on the premises of the Abuja Mission.
Calling President George Manneh Weah’s personal intervention, he said: “So, I am using this press briefing to bring to the attention of President Weah the deteriorating health condition of my eight years old daughter. It’s only been us the family spending money on her medical and post-traumatic or any form of psychosocial counselling section as should be done for such a traumatized child.”
Bayjay accused the Liberian Ambassador, Professor Al-Hassan Conteh of protecting the perpetrators of the act rather than the young victim. He revealed that the situation compelled him to move his family out of the government assigned apartment to a private estate at his own personal expense. At the same time, he also accused the Foreign Ministry’s Special Investigative Committee of further covering up Ambassador Conteh’s bias and one-sided handling of the matter at the expense of the victim. Bayjay has since termed the Foreign Ministry’s investigative report as only amounting to “nothing more than a diplomatic appeasement and cover-up”.
Ambassador Conteh, in a press statement from the Embassy, however accused Bayjay of “impugning his hard-earned and reputable character…”, terming his Minister Counselor’s accusation against him as “libelous utterances and cunningly crafted shenanigans.”
“The Embassy is therefore appealing to the public to avoid condoning unsubstantiated sentiments and rather listen to the facts of the case based on the rule of law,” Amb. Conteh said in a statement on the Embassy’s letterhead.
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