Source: Frontpage Africa
Monrovia-
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| Mulbah Morlu |
PURPORTED TEXT FROM RUSSELL'S PHONE
“I’m sending this text message as an official position of my office and personality as Minister of Transport, Republic of Liberia. Out of my free will I’ve decided to comply with the demands of Mulbah Morlu, a member of the CDC whose support the Unity Party has been seeking for years now. Mr. Morlu has threatened that unless I confess to our attempts to offer him money to support us, he’ll reveal something he has which is dear to me. I admit that we promised to give Morlu US$25,000 to make a statement of support. We initially however gave him US$300 and he has held the money and refuses to act for us. I therefore admit that this has been the usual recruiting strategy of the UP, except that the Morlu project has failed and I apologize to the President for the let down. Willard Russell”.
A text message purportedly sent from the phone number of Minister of Transport Willard Russel by former war crimes advocate Mulbah Morlu.
The controversy came to light late Friday when Truth FM radio played the voice of Mulbah Morlu in which he pledged his support to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s candidacy in what many said was the beginning of such political swapping to be witnessed during the electoral period. But Morlu in less than 24 hours somersaulted his endorsement Saturday afternoon as he announced his ‘allegiance’ to his Congress for Democratic Change (CDC).
Morlu, a former war crimes court advocate, previously served as a member of the policy committee which was dissolved. Late Friday evening, Morlue declared that while he was not denouncing his party, but was going to support the Unity Party (UP)’s campaign on grounds that President Sirleaf has the ‘right vision’ for the country attributed his declaration of UP support as an ‘investigation’.
During a hastily arranged news conference Saturday held at a local Chinese restaurant in Sinkor, Morlue did not deny the voice endorsing Sirleaf being his.
Said Morlue: “Yes, that was my voice which I cannot deny. But as I just read in my statement, I was on a cover-up to launch an investigation into long-standing suspicions of cash-and-carry loyalty that the Unity Party government has been engaged into”, Morlu responded when asked to provide clarity on the Truth FM recording.
Russell’s phone taken away
A well-circulated text message purportedly from the Minister of Transport-Designate, Willard Russell, was sent to various media institutions late Friday evening and early Saturday morning which reads, as sent from GSM number 06-510-325:
“I’m sending this text message as an official position of my office and personality as Minister of Transport, Republic of Liberia. Out of my free will I’ve decided to comply with the demands of Mulbah Morlu, a member of the CDC whose support the Unity Party has been seeking for years now. Mr. Morlu has threatened that unless I confess to our attempts to offer him money to support us, he’ll reveal something he has which is dear to me. I admit that we promised to give Morlu US$25,000 to make a statement of support. We initially however gave him US$300 and he has held the money and refuses to act for us. I therefore admit that this has been the usual recruiting strategy of the UP, except that the Morlu project has failed and I apologize to the President for the let down. Willard Russell”.
Information available to FrontPageAfrica speaks of Morlu receiving at least US$5,000 from Russell but an apparent delay or refusal in giving Morlu a balance of over US$2,000 led to a feud between the pair which eventually led to Russell’s phone being allegedly stolen and taken away by Morlu. Morlu then reportedly ran away and began to immediately use the phone in dispatching the text message to various media institutions.
The information indicates that the incident occurred in one of the offices of a local FM radio station in Central Monrovia late Friday evening, December 10, 2010.
Citing his desire to launch an investigation into the ruling party’s purported cash recruitment of executive members from opposition parties, Morlu told journalists that Russell is “personally confirmed to being one of such political agents who hops from one rendezvous out to the next in search of his client of compromisers who would be expected to trade support for the UP in exchange for the finesse of materialism, unlimited to huge cash, luxury vehicles, and the promise of an undercover job”.
Said Morlu: “Honorable Willard Russell a few months ago met with me and few others from the CDC and said he was instructed to ‘convey a message from President Sirleaf’ concerning a working relationship. At the climax of these discussions, Hon. Russell expressed his desire to ‘hire us’ to declare support for President Sirleaf in exchange for cash and other benefits. He, in his recruiting strategy, suggested a business approach and would put upfront US$25,000 after a ‘statement of support is made’”.
Reaching Russell proved impossible all through the weekend as his number was permanently off. He was recently transferred from the General Services Agency (GSA) as the director-general to the Ministry of Transport as minister-designate as part of President Sirleaf’s recent cabinet reshuffle which saw the former Transport Minister Alphonso Gaye going the opposite position.
It has been confirmed though that the number used to circulate the text message is the Minister-Designate’s official number but skepticism continues to hang over the real sender of the text message given the mystery of Morlu’s declaration of support to the UP on one day and his reversal the following day.
More importantly, Morlu’s previous antics, notably his claims that he met with U.S. President Obama which turned out to be a farce has led many to question the validity of Morlu’s claims against the ruling party.
