By Gideon Nma Scott, Jr.
Following the establishment of the Assets Recovery and Property Retrieval Task Force (AREPT), some Liberians, mostly those in the immediate past government, described the team as a weaponizing some individuals to go after people whom the president accused of mismanaging state resources for their own benefit, especially rival political figures who opposed President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and his government on his bid for the presidency. They named and tagged the Assets Recovery Team, “Witch Hunters” for its perceived role to ensure that his rivals were brought to their political and financial knees.
Soon, Boakai’s supporters, in support to the AREPT, ran with the slogan, “WITCH HUNTERS” and printed and wore “Witch hunters T-shirts, caps and other paraphernalia. This move widened the political divide in the country as others saw themselves as target of the “WITCH HUNTERS” regime.
To add more salt to the stew, many persons remembered his famous campaign statement, “I will not bow down on my commitment to fight corruption in this country. People should learn to distinguish between what is theirs and what is for others.” This statement put more fear in some of those who felt targeted by the chief witch hunter, Joseph Boakai, regime.
As the jargon “Witch Hunter” went viral, Boakai made another staggering statement that made his adversaries wanting to bury themselves alive. He said, “If you are a witch, you will be hunted.”
Howbeit, the team commenced its duties and began retrieving some properties they felt that were gotten illegally. Few persons, including Madam Finda Bondo and her Gracious Ride Vehicle Company were among the first group on the list to be hunted. Not happy with the embarrassment that the Recovery Team inflicted on her and the Gracious Ride Transport company, she initiated a law suit against the AREPT on the argument that its properties were obtained legally and that the Recovery team lacked the legal basis from thwarting its business. A stay order was placed on AREPT by the High Court, thereby suspending all of its activities for as long as the case was before the Court.
After waiting for about nine months, on February 19, 2025, the Supreme Court of Liberia berthed its ruling in the case, and denied Gracious Ride’s petition to bar The Assets Recovery and Property Retrieval Task Force (AREPT) from operating as a legal entity in the country. The Assets Recovery Team, as it is often called, was established by Executive Order #126 issued by President Joseph Nyumah Boakai in 2024. The AREPT is authorized to retrieve all wrongfully acquired government assets, identify and trace all stolen and suspicious assets within and outside Liberia, establish an investigative panel, and constitute an effective legal, research, and investigative team to procure tangible evidence. It is also required to initiate criminal prosecution and civil litigation on behalf of the Government, return confiscated assets to Liberia upon adjudication, and place travel and other restrictions on all individuals identified as suspects while undergoing investigation for stolen and suspicious assets. The Task Force is further urged to employ diplomatic, and Interpol means to extradite individuals identified as suspects who are outside Liberia’s jurisdiction and bring them under the investigative team’s jurisdiction.
President Boakai also emphasized that the Task Force should retrieve assets from private individuals who have illegally purchased government assets.
In her agreement, Gracious Ride, stressed that the Asset Recovery and Retrieval task force was an illegal body which has not been been legislated by the Legislature who has the authority to make law. Gracious Ride also questioned the legal authority of President Joseph Nyumah Boakai’s Executive Order #126 in which they said their commercial vehicles were illegally seized by AREPT in March of of 2024.
The company further argued that the self-imposed Asset Recovery and Retrieval task force is obstructing the function of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission which is the legal body to investigate stolen state assets.
The Supreme Court, on 4 July 2024, heard arguments from both the complainant and AREPT’s legal teams and reserved ruling in the case. Due to lack of quorum back then, the high Court re-scheduled the case for hearing on Tuesday, January 14,2025.
After nearly one year of litigation, the full Bench of the Supreme Court said Gracious Ride, owned and run by a former presidential aide lacked the authority to file the petition, especially so, when it requested the Court to declare the operations of the AREPT as illegal.
Presenting the court’s verdict Associate Justice Jamesetta Howard Wolokolie said, “Having reviewed the records, heard the arguments and contentions advanced and considered the relevant laws applicable thereto, it is hereby adjudged that the petitioner has no standing to assert the interest of third parties where it has not been given the authority to do so and cannot raise the claims of third parties who are not before the Court; and that in the instant case, the petitioner having failed to sustain the burden that Executive Order 120 for the Establishment of the Office of Asset Recovery as vested statute or creature of a statute it is denied for lack of proper constitutional challenge”
“WHEREFORE AND IN VIEW OF THE FOREGOING, the petition praying for an Order of this Court declaring Executive Order #126 unconstitutional is hereby denied and it HEREBY SO ORDERED,” Justice Wolokollie concluded the opinion.
The ruling, in favor of the Asset Recovery Team, is a BIG WIN for the government, especially when the operations of the Team, if managed properly, will retrieve properties and millions of foreign monies from past official who used government platform to amass wealth for themselves illegal.
Many Liberians are pointing fingers to Finda Bondo, Sens. Nathaniel McGill and Emmanuel Nuquay of Margibi County, former Minister of Finance Development Planning, Samuel Tweah among scores of other individuals, some of whom have worked in past governments, while others are working in the Boakai-Koung government.
In most country around the world, sittings governments establish a multi-agency asset recovery task forces to respond to a particular criminal trend, after a massive corruption scandal, after a regime is changed or the fall of an alleged corrupt government, etc. These task-forces are most useful in investigating serious and complex financial crimes, especially when the proceeds of crime have been laundered transnationally. In other words, to effectively combat organised and financial crime, it is often necessary for countries to establish such multi-agency asset recovery task force, which are given an investigative mandate or even have a broader quasi-judicial mandate.
This is why I agree with the Supreme Court in her ruling. This will ensure that President Boakai’s quest to promote accountability of current and past government official is achieved. But my take is, whether the AREPT will only go after people in the past government hooked for corruption, or will the process be holistic, one that will involve any or all persons who are accused of “ENEMY#1”, as Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf described it. Already, some folks of the past government who think that they are enemy to the Boakai’s regime are insinuating that are the prime targets of the AREPT.
As the Assets Recovery is dubbed “Witch Hunters”, these persons are concern that their properties could be seized by Boakai and his people leaving closed associates to the regime and that of Madam Sirleaf of the hook. “This entire process is a witch hunt,” former Rep. Acarus Gray stated on a local radio station in Monrovia. “We will not give in to Boakai and his people. We will resist the Assets Recovery Team in every form and manner. It does not mean well for the Liberian people,” Gray vented out.
I believe that if this team must succeed, it must wear a cap of impartiality, accountability and credibility and come with the resolve to discourage impunity in all sectors of governance for the good of the motherland. No specific group of people or an individual should be targeted. If this is what the Liberian people want, then it must handle with care.
In closing, now that the Assets Recovery and Property Retrieval Task Force (AREPT) has been certified by the Supreme Court of Liberia as legitimate National Witch Hunters, I charge you, team members, to go after all witches, whether in government or out, in country or out of country, who, in their service to government abused power and stood on the shoulders of the Liberian people to amass have ill-gotten wealth, and hunt them, but in a way that promotes accountability, transparency, peace and moreover, discourage impunity.
This is the reason that I must agree with Mr. Boakai, “If there is a witch, we will hunt it.”
*The thought of the sone of a professional Kru woman.