In the wake of recent re-heightened concerns from the public space including a human rights group and some students of the University of Liberia (UL) protesting the Joseph Boakai Administration’s decision to appoint Ambassador Al-Hassan Conteh as Liberia’s ambassador to the United States, Verity News has concluded a detailed investigation on why the ‘ghost of rape’ is stuck on the embattled Liberian Ambassador.
Cogent, multiple sources from the Executive Mansion confirmed that Ambassador Conteh is Liberia’s ambassador-designate to Washington, DC. This move is likely to further fuel agony in the public and would put a dent in the Boakai Administration’s ‘Rescue Mission’ mantra. Most diplomatic analysts are of the view that sending Ambassador Conteh who is still stuck with the ‘ghost of rape’ as ambassador to the country’s biggest and largest traditional, diplomatic ally in the United States will be an own-goal in Liberia-US relations.
This is as the country still struggles to recover from the sexual abuse cloud still hanging over the country’s UN Permanent Mission in New York following the Ambassador Dee Maxwell Kemayah’s entanglement of reported sexual assault on a female staff.
This Verity News investigation digs deeper into why the seasoned Liberian academician and diplomat in Ambassador Conteh’s appointment to Washington DC will send a wrong and terrible message from a government that came to power on the campaign of ‘Rescue’. Despite his vast experience of being one of Liberia’s longest serving ambassadors, Ambassador Conteh’s excesses in terms of bad leadership coupled with his mishandling of the Abuja Mission’s rape incident of a seven-year old Liberian girl makes him a bad choice for the DC Mission.
Ambassador Conteh is currently the Interim President of the UL after President Boakai dissolved the UL Board, a temporary position that even drew some protests among some of the students and a human rights group. Prior to that, he served as Liberia’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria for 15 years, spanning three different presidential administrations, including those of Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, George Weah and Joseph Boakai.
Prior to his appointment to the Abuja diplomatic post, he served as the President of the UL which end of his tenure there at the time was marred with rounds of students’ protestations.
Background to The Abuja Rape Incident at The Liberian Embassy
Sometimes in 2021, Liberians in and out of Liberia and Liberia’s international partners were shocked when a Liberian diplomat made starling disclosures that his seven- year old daughter was sexually abused multiple times on the compound of the Liberian Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria. Even more shocking was when the father provided a chronological account of how Ambassador Conteh did all in his way to cover up the rape incident even after it was brought to his attention.
All attempts by the father, then the Minister Counselor for Press and Public Affairs at the Liberian Embassy in Abuja, to follow all laid down diplomatic channels to have gotten redress for his daughter’s dire situation were frustrated by Ambassador Conteh whose actions throughout proved to only protect the alleged rapists. Mr. Nat Bayjay, the father who was recently appointed by President Boakai as Deputy Information Minister for Technical Services, at the time explained how Ambassador Conteh deliberately sabotaged all his attempts to even get his daughter’s medical report from the Nigerian Police Clinic in Abuja which had requested that the Embassy needed to request that.
The rapists were under the guidance of a fellow diplomat, according to Bayjay at the time which was further corroborated by a later Foreign Ministry ‘Investigative Report’. They were two teenage boys who according to the father repeatedly abused his seven-year old minor sexually before coming to his attention. Even to show any concern for the poor little girl’s health after the medical checkup had confirmed the multiple rape, Ambassador Conteh remained bent on protecting the ‘image of the Embassy’ and the two teenage rapists at the expense of the parents’ agony and their daughter’s traumatizing pain.
According to the father’s explanation at the time, the ambassador’s determination for to deny him access to his daughter’s medical report compelled him to invite plain-clothes Nigerian police personnel on the compound of the Embassy. He furthered that at the time, Ambassador Conteh intervened and prevented the two rapists and their guardians from going to the Nigerian police’s anti-rape detachment in Abuja. And when they finally did the next day, Ambassador Conteh is reported to have called the Nigerian Inspector General of Police which prevented the incarceration of the rapists in the juvenile cell.
In the end, that police action led to the release of the damaging medical report. The father, being seconded to the Liberian Embassy by the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT), then formally wrote then Information Minister Ledgerhood Rennie with an attachment of the medical report. Minister Rennie then forwarded the letter to then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dee Maxwell Kemayah. Bayjay recalled at the time that meanwhile, the Ambassador had refused to informally inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Monrovia, though he had told the Ambassador that was the right thing to do.
Amb. Conteh’s actions knowingly violated Article 3, Section 21.1 of the Children Law of Liberia which states that: “Every child shall have the right to be protected from sexual abuse and exploitation, including prostitution and pornography”. It’s safe to label Amb. Conteh as a rape apologist for his cover up of the unfortunate event and for not implementing a safeguard policy to protect the 7-year-old girl from rape while serving as ambassador in Nigeria.
Prior to that, the Ambassador ignored and trashed the report from a three-man internal investigative panel he said instituted. Below is a recommendation from that report:
“Your Excellency, from the further investigation conducted on the five children, which we took keen note of their body expressions as well, the panel wish to make only one recommendation to avoid further ill-feelings, trauma, chaos and possible embarrassment to the Embassy. We recommend that Ambulai and Alieu be relocated. We are saying this because, the two families are living adjacent to one another, they see each other everyday, and as human, beings, it is impossible that they will not meet on the steps, or the hallway every now and than, and Whenever this happens, there will be problems, and the results may be catastrophic, in view of that unfortunate thing that happened to their daughter and sister and the reaction displayed by the father which was witnessed on the fateful day of the incident.”
A Denting Medical Report, A Traumatized Seven-Year-Old Baby’s Scar:
Several anti-rape protests rocked Monrovia during the Weah Administration Under the signature of Dr. Chinonso Ereke Maryann, the medical report obtained by Verity News confirmed the multiple sexual abuses of Bayjay’s seven-year old baby. See some excerpts from the medical report, conducted April 17, 2021 and released May 4, 2021 which has since been in the public space for over three years:
“Laboratory investigations carried out as follows: A working diagnosis of sexual abuse of a minor was made:
Vaginal Examination: Poor perineal hygine, whitish discharge around the labia minora, hymen has been breached, Rectal Examination: bruises around the anal region.
Bayjay himself would later explain at the time that the Ambassador accused him of conniving with the Nigerian doctor and nurses to have released such a denting reporting, something that further enraged him and his family.
Meanwhile, the Ambassador ignored the deteriorating health condition of the abused child at the time leaving all medical bills to the already hurting parents without any iota of the least humanitarian feeling and empathy for the child from Ambassador Conteh.
Even further medical reports done in Liberia and other hospitals in Nigeria further confirmed damages done to the minor victim.
The ‘Do-Nothing’ Approach of The Weah Administration:
More disappointing was the Weah Administration’s ‘don’t care’ approach to the Abuja Embassy’s rape incident. Aside from a cosmetic ‘investigative mission’ by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nothing tangible was done to bring relief to the abused, traumatized Liberian baby. Our investigation further revealed how Ambassador Conteh tele-guided the entire Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ so called investigative report, tailored in a way that covered up his leadership lapses in the entire rape of a child’s episode.
The Jarjar-Kamara Investigative Report in the end proved to a wastage of state’s resources after tax payers’ money was used to facilitate the travel expenses of him Ambassador Kamara and team members from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Aside from the report acknowledging the commission of the crime and that the two families are reassigned, it fell short of even recommending any immediate relief to the child.
So the family continued with footing the media and post-traumatic counselling bills on their own before a financial intervention from the Spoon Network following Bayjay’s public media appearances appealing for help for his baby.
At the level of the Juvenile Court, the Weah Administration continued its quest to frustrate the justice system by imploring every means available that delayed the dispensing of justice. That was after the family travelled down with their abused child to Liberia and spent about three months on the issue of the case. A renowned female lawyer and some other promising female lawyers offered pro bono legal serves to the family against the defense team of lawyers from the Gongloe Law Firm hired by Ambassador Conteh and the guardians.
Sensing deliberate attempts by the Weah Administration in delaying even the first day of testimony for the victim up to everything that would have commenced the trial, the family had to return to Abuja for their young daughter to continue both her medical and post traumatic counseling treatments.
The case lingers at the Juvenile Court which the father in a recent radio appearance stated he will reawaken now that he has hope in the Boakai Administration’s dispersing of justice for their baby.
The Aggrieved Parents’ Media Outburst:
The early morning hours of December 9, 2021, saw Monrovia’s newsstands flooded with the frontpages of major newspapers carrying the story a day after the father felt constrained and had taken to the press. Getting no responsive intervention or any form of concern from the Central Government even after over 8 months and after imploring all the diplomatic channels to get help for his abused child, Bayjay traveled in late 2021 Monrovia and unleased a slew of media appearances for two weeks uninterrupted.
At various press conferences and radio appearances, the father was consistent with two things: help for the deteriorating health of his child and justice, while at the same time detailing every bad leadership Ambassador Conteh exhibited in his attempts to cover up and later ‘water-down’ the gravity of the rape incident and its impacts.
The Resurgence of A Stubborn ‘Rape Ghost’
Just when Ambassador Conteh had thought that the implications of his terrible cover up tactics were over more than three years from the rape incident, a rude awakening reminder surfaced when in July, some protests and anti-Conteh press conferences were held in Monrovia over news of his preferment to become Liberia’s next ambassador to the United States.
While some students at the University of Liberia protested against even him temporarily leading the new UL’s Interim Management Team, a human rights group held press conferences calling on the Boakai Administration to abandon its plan of sending another ‘rape apologist’ as the country’s ambassador to the US.
March of Justice, a human rights organization noted for championing anti-rape campaigns stated in its recently held press conference in Monrovia: “But very importantly, we want to use this time to kindly remind President Boakai that Amb. Conteh remains on record for intentionally supervising and compromising a rape case of a 7-year-old Liberian girl right on the premises of our Liberian Diplomatic Mission in Abuja, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
“Your Excellency President Boakai, our country is yet to even recover from the embarrassing news of when our former ambassador to the very United States sexually harassed a female staff at our United Nations Permanent Mission in New York.. Mr. President, an interim management team should be headed by people who regard humanity and uphold the moral creed of human rights, not the ones who invent the wheel of sexual violence and inhumane life circumstances.
Dr. Conteh’s recent appointment to the UL and pending appointment to the US undermine the UP-led government’s mantra to rescue Liberia’s age long broken image in the fight for justice”, the group noted.
Amb. Conteh’s Leadership Missteps & Implications of His Appointment To The US
From the late Patrick Sawyer’s Ebola saga that dragged Liberia into the mud based on the same Ambassador Conteh’s bad leadership style, so same was applied in the Abuja rape incident.
Verity News details below notable points of the Ambassador’s flawed leadership intervention in the Abuja Rape Incident:
Ambassador Conteh’ refusal to even accept the outcome of his own internal investigation committee’s report which stated the boys’ confusion to committing the crime and that the Embassy needed to foremost immediately return the teenage rapists to Liberia which he still insisted no.
Ambassador Conteh’s influence over the so called Foreign Ministry’s investigative report which he teleguided to his own interest.
Ambassador Conteh’ deliberate attempts to deny the family of the child’s medical report: A look at the medical report shows that the ambassador’s sabotage caused a 17 days’ delay before the report was finally released to the family after the father involved Nigerian police.
Ambassador Conteh’s allegation that the victim’s father connived with the Nigerian Police Clinic to show that the child was indeed raped multiple times.
Ambassador Conteh’ refusal to raid the Embassy’s compound of the two dangerous teenage rapists even when recommended to ‘quietly send them to Liberia’ in order to restore the embassy’s diplomatic decorum’ and restore sanity to the embassy that also housed families of other diplomats and local staffs.
The US Embassy’s Concern In The Matter
All eyes will be now turned to how the United States would respond to the appointment of Ambassador Conteh to its capital. It can be recalled that the father disclosed how the US Embassy in Monrovia invited and held discussions with him over the incident in early 2022.
The US Embassy had told the father how it was watching with keen interest how the Weah Administration was handling the issue. With a lingering sexual assault allegation of Liberia’s former Ambassador to the UN still on the desk of the Americans, the public will be watching to see if the United States that fights for human rights and justice including those for rape victims will accept the agrement (the diplomatic note of assignment that one the sending government sends to the host or receiving country for the former’s senior diplomats).
