Has Samukai Met Court’s Mandate?

Lofa County Senator-elect Brownie Samukai

Lofa County Senator-elect Brownie Samukai has paid US$173,276.05 as some portion of his share of  money illegally withdrawn from the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) pension funds.

The money was made available fews days after Senator-elect Samuka and and his two former deputies (appellate), withdrew a communication asking for an extension for the 50% there were suppose to pay out of  US$1,147,665.35 taken from the AFL account, for which they were found guilty.

Although Samukai had made a payment of US$173,276.05, there is no record with the Criminal Court ‘C’, which first found him guilty, to show that his two former deputies Joseph F. Johnson, former Deputy Minister for Administration and J. Nyumah Dorkor, former Comptroller, have made any payment in that direction.

Samukai, together with Johnson and Dorkor, were to pay the amount of US$573,832.68 within a six-month period to avoid Imprisonment, according to the Supreme Court mandate to the Criminal Court ‘C’. 

It was out of the amount of US$573,832.68 that Samukai alone managed to pay the US$173,276.05, which his followers believed is the portion of his share of the money. 

The money, which was paid yesterday, August 19, came through a group of people, predominantly Lofians.

The question remains to be answered is whether Samukai's payment of the US$173,276.05 satisfies the mandate of the Supreme Court. 

This is because when the Supreme Court, through Associate Justice Yussif Kaba, delivered the opinion (judgment) into Samukai’s appeal against the Criminal Court ‘C’ ruling that declared the trio guilty, Justice Kaba said Samukai and his co-defendants then, from a review of the records, were jointly charged with the commission of the crimes for which they were brought down guilty.

Kaba further explained that in the absence of a showing that the parties’ contribution to the commission of the crimes are separable, “this court does not see how the trial judge could determine a higher sentence for some of the appellees and lower sentence for the other.”

Kaba also said the court says that restitution is a part of a sentence and therefore, are duly bound to restitute the amount withdrawn from the AFL Pension Account without the permission or authorization of the soldiers.

Therefore, Kaba further explained that the sentencing, as ordered by the trial judge, is modified as follows: “That the appellees are all hereby sentenced to serve a term of two years each in a common jail,” Kaba said.

However, the justice maintained that the sentence shall be suspended, provided the said appellees shall restitute the full amount of US$1,147,665.35 or fifty percent thereof, within a period of six months “and, thereafter, enter appropriate arrangements to pay the remaining portion in one year. Should the appellees fail or refuse to restitute as stated above, then, and in that case, they should be incarcerated in a common jail and remain therein until the full amount is paid or liquidated at the rate of US$25.00 per month as provided by law.”

According to the then indictment, in August 2009, the Ministry of Defense established the mandatory fund and began deducting from the salaries of all ranks of the AFL for what was supposed to be a supplementary pension benefit. Those amounts included US$460,000 in one account and US$687,656.35 in another, making the total sum US$1,147,665.35.

The indictment cited misuse of the fund, including Samukai paying US$50,000 as death benefits to the family of a late Nigerian general who headed the Liberian army, Suraj Abdurrahman. The gesture was controversial because Abdurrahman did not contribute to the fund while with the AFL, and he, therefore, should not have been a beneficiary. Samukai was also alleged to have made other subsequent withdrawals from the fund that were not in line with the fund’s stated purpose.

When the defendants took the witness stand, they testified that they opened the account not only as a pension fund for AFL personnel, but to also meet up with other budgetary constraints. 

Samukai admitted withdrawing and using the funds, but said he did it in his capacity as defense minister and the money was used in the interest of the AFL. 

Moreover, he said both former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and President George Weah agreed that the government would pay the money back into the account.