Boakai’s VP Pick: Majority Say Ticket Might Be Winnable, But Good Governance Not Assured
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Loading... - Lawrence Botchway
- 01 May 2023
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The erstwhile political leader of the Movement for Reconstruction and Democracy (MDR), Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, seemed to have met the end of his long political prominence in Liberia after the United States of America State Department in December 2021 placed him on Global Magnitsky Act.
The act authorizes the United States government to sanction individuals it views as human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the country. The U.S. government accuses Senator Johnson of being involved in pay-for-play funding scheme with government ministries and agencies for personal enrichment.
“Johnson has also offered the sale of votes in multiple Liberian elections in exchange for money,” according to the U.S. government statement.
In January 2023, the sanctioned Johnson ended his political marriage with President George Weah because the president failed to provide jobs for Nimbaians in exchange for support for Weah’s 2017 Presidential bid.
“Let me clearly state that the agreement I signed with the president has come to an end, Johnson said. Johnson urges the president to cancel his trip until he can settle his obligations to the county. The people of Nimba worked hard to elect President Weah, but he has ignored them, the senator said.
Putting forth a proxy
With Johnson’s political career hitting a major bottleneck due to the sanctions imposed on him, he opted to find a means to put forth a proxy that would provide him the needed coverup.
At a hastily-arranged convention, with the influence of Senator Johnson, the MDR endorsed Senator Jeremiah Koung as the Standard bearer of the MDR putting Koung in the same position as his political Godfather, Senator Johnson. Read More…
