Defense Questions AFL CoS On Signature

By Grace Q. Bryant
The defense team in the ongoing trial involving Brownie Samukai and two others at the Criminal Court ‘C’ has received clarity regarding the signature of the current Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), the then Deputy, about his knowledge and signature on the account securing the AFL’s pension.
On Tuesday, February 25, the prosecution’s second subpoenaed witness, General Prince C. Johnson III, stated that between October to December or to the turning over as “B” signatory, there were no transactions or documents that he (Johnson) signed on from the bank.
Even though the year of the months mentioned was not specified in his response, witness Johnson said he was even on leave when the accusation of the missing money was around and informed the court that, “As a Deputy Chief of Staff, in December which I had my annual leave, I went to see my beautiful wife and kids.”
He admitted that it was in 2017 around October that the current Minister of Defense, Daniel D. Ziankahn received a letter addressed to the Manager of ECOBANK under the signature of former Deputy Minister Johnson about the change of the AFL Pension Account to the AFL Morale and Welfare Account.
“My boss, Rtd. General Ziankahn decided that since in fact I was serving as Deputy Chief of Staff, I should work along with Deputy Minister Johnson and the content of that letter addressed to the ECOBANK was to change the name of the account from the AFL Pension Account to AFL Morale and Welfare Account.
He testified that it was out of concerned about the change of name that the Deputy Minister informed him that in order for the Chief of Staff to be a signatory to the account, there is a need to get a statement of the bank account to know what is in the account and it was during said discussion, he was informed that he as Deputy he will be “B” the signatory to the account.
The State special witness explained to the court how he informed his immediate boss, Ziankahn, about the discussions as unfolded; adding that the bank statement which was provided later by Kennedy Sackie, the internal auditor at the Ministry of Defense, had a total of around US$ 688,964.92 in November and in December a new statement was received with US$ 711,000.
Meanwhile, the Minister of National Defense, Daniel D. Ziankahn, is expected to take the witness stand today, February 26, as the third Subpoena witness to provide more clarity into the ongoing trial for government lawyers.