By G. Watson Richards
Former Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah, Jr., has revealed that he is prepared to confront what he described as political intimidation and blackmail amid reports that the country’s Asset Recovery authorities intend to communicate formally with him.
Tweah made the disclosure on Wednesday on his official Facebook page that his lawyer, the decorated Cllr. Arthur Tamba Johnson, informed him that Cllr. Kla Martin of the Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval Task Force indicated that a letter addressed to him was ready for delivery.
According to Tweah, he immediately instructed his legal counsel to contact Martin and receive the correspondence on his behalf.
“Kla said he would send the letter today,” Tweah stated.
The former Finance Minister, however, declared that he would not be intimidated by political pressure, invoking the memory of prominent Liberian figures and martyrs who sacrificed for the nation’s democratic freedoms.
“I, Samuel D. Tweah, Jr., would never kowtow to political intimidation and blackmail. Not after Tonia Richardson, Weewee Debbar, Jackson F. Doe, Gabriel Kpolleh and the other 250,000 martyrs of our history have paid that pyrrhic price for our liberty,” Tweah said.
Tweah, amongst other things said he intends to make the contents of the anticipated letter public upon receipt and would subsequently communicate the date on which he plans to personally deliver his response to authorities.
“Once received, I will inform them of the day I will go in person to deliver my response,” he said
The aquatted former finance minister also announced plans to launch what he described as a “national discourse” at the Center for Intellectual Exchange and Orientation (CIEO), where he intends to address concerns about governance, democracy and development under the administration of President Joseph Boakai.
“On that same day, I would launch a national discourse at CIEO on the maladies of national development and democracy under President Joseph Bakai. We would collectively reflect upon the reversal of gains made in the last 20 years since the end of war,” he noted.
The remarks come amid heightened political tensions in Liberia as debates intensify over governance, accountability and the direction of post-war democratic progress.
Neither the Asset Recovery Task Force nor officials of the Boakai administration had publicly responded to Tweah’s statements at the time of publication.
