Costa’s Operations Manager Provides Conflicting Account ….LIS Discloses

By Alex Yomah
The Operations Manager of Mr. Henry Costa has turned himself over to the Liberia Immigration Service [LIS] investigative team.
Mr. Sylvester Tevez Nah, who reportedly absconded along with Costa into neighboring Sierra Leon, was escorted by his lawyers provided contrast statement to previous statement divulged by his boss Henry Costa to LIS investigative team.
Addressing press conference yesterday in Monrovia, Commissioner Roberts W. Buddy said Mr. Nah voluntarily walked to LIS with his legal representation, Atty. Vincent B. Smith and divulged his account relative to statements made by Mr. Costa, a situation LIS termed as conflicting accounts.
Commissioner Bubby indicated that key among Nah’s voluntary assertions ran contrary to Mr. Costa’s earlier voluntary statement to the LIS in which he [ Costa] told the investigation that he gave Mr. Nah US$20 to procure a Laissez Passer.
Contrast to Mr. Costa assertions on record, Mr. Nah denied ever receiving money from his boss to procure his document. “I Mr. Sylvester Tevez Nah was never aware nor did I receive any money from Mr. Costa to procure a Laissez Passer,” Mr. Buddy said Nah stated.
Contrary to receiving US$20 from Mr. Costa, Mr. Nah testified saying, “I only received cellphone numbers from Costa which belongs to one Mr. Musa Sackor, the Cousin of Mr. Costa, who I only received a particular passport size photo of Mr. Costa from the Pepper Fish Club in the ELWA area.”
The LIS boss indicated that in Costa’s voluntary statement, he claimed not to have known the staff at the Passport Section whom Nah contacted for the document but in his counter statement, Nah said Costa sent the cellphone numbers.
Nah explained how the telephone number of Mr. Monie Hook Momolu, a dismissed employee since February 15, 2017 who was charged with Criminal Conspiracy, Forgery and Impersonation in connection with the unauthorized issuance of Liberian passports was also given to him and that Momolu’s role was to take delivery of the passport size photo of Mr. Costa and that was done in front of the University of Liberia main campus.
Commissioner Buddy said Nah further disclosed that few days after, he (Nah) received the sealed processed document and it was at that point that when he opened it, he saw a Liberian Citizen Travel Certificate in favor of Costa.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner is assuring the pubic that all those named in the ongoing investigation will be brought to justice and that the ongoing investigation is not intended to arrest people as being perceived by the public; rather, it is intended to unearth a criminal syndicate involved with the theft and falsification of a national travel document which was purportedly issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Commissioner Buddy said the Ministry of Justice has turned the investigation over to the Liberia National Police while officers of the LIS who were involved with divulging sensitive/confidence information through the social media are being investigated by the Police Professional Standard Division (PSD).