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"LAMA
Board Gives
"Dialogue" Editor
90-Day Ultimatum?"
Laughable! Soccer Legends
Tuesday,
October 6, 2009
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Tewroh-Wehtoe
Sungbeh
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“The
editor of the online Liberian
Dialogue news organ,
Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh has been
given a 90-day ultimatum as of
September 13 to retract his
article he wrote against LAMA
Walter B. Skinner over the
handling of the energy
assistance program held in
Gwinnett County in April this
year or face action from the
community.”
-
LAMA Newsletter, 2009.
The
ultimatum you just read came
from "Friends of Skinner," the extremely
partisan crowd in metro
Atlanta masquerading as
“Board Members,” who are
threatening to take some kind
of action against me if I fail
to retract the June 22, 2009
investigative article, “In
Whose Interest: Walter B.
Skinner, His Friends, or The
Liberian Association of
Metropolitan Atlanta
(LAMA)?” (Which I will never
retract), for having the
courage to unearth corruption in the Skinner
administration.
Coincidentally, the so-called ultimatum
was issued around the
same time the editor of the
New Broom Newspaper in Liberia,
Roland Worwee, was reportedly sued by
President Sirleaf for libel
after that newspaper reported
that the president received a
$2 million kickback to favor a
company that wants to take
control of the Cavalla Rubber
Plantation in southeastern
Liberia.
It
does not surprise me at all
because that is Liberia; and
this is metro Atlanta, a part
of the United States where I
live. The difference between
the two is that one supposedly
operates in a democratic
society where
the judiciary is in name only
and is controlled and
manipulated by the office of
the Liberian presidency, on
the other hand, there is hope
on this side of the world that
I will at least be given a
fair trial if I were ever
taken to court where a jury of
my peers will be waiting to indict or
acquit me without the
President of the United States
or the governor of the State
of Georgia meddling in the
court trial.
LAMA
President Walter B. Skinner
The
so-called ultimatum or bluff
(I will call it) is a
shameless attempt by the
partisan crowd to silence me,
to save face and protect their
scandal-plagued “dear leader” Walter B.
Skinner of the Liberian
Association of Metropolitan
Atlanta (LAMA), who should
have been investigated and
impeached immediately (if
found guilty) for using the
community’s name illegally
unknown to
his vice president, treasurer,
his leadership team and most
Board members, and unilaterally
negotiated,
received and distributed $4,403.70,
to his then-unemployed cronies and non-due
paying members he claimed were
compensated for a
quasi-energy deal they worked
on, which
started the investigative
piece. He paid himself $900.00
and gave the community a
meager $345.70.
However,
instead of the individuals, or
the so-called Board members
take into consideration the
seriousness of the matter by
recusing themselves in order
to appoint a neutral and
independent body to
investigate the illegal use of
community money to avoid any
appearance of conflict of
interest, the
Board members, some of whom
receives some kind of
financial support from Mr.
Skinner for their
"work" - from the
fledgling community choir, its
soccer team, the community
newsletter; and contract to print
community programs; or another
who is often paid for the
community to use his church to
host community programs, were
invited to investigate me at
the chairman’s house where
they shamelessly put on their
partisan and friendship hats
and decided to go after me
(which is laughable), for
unearthing what even Chairman
of the Board, Paul Muah
referred to as an
“appearance of money
laundering,” and even acknowledges “some things
were done wrong.”
Chairman Muah
acknowledges there was “an
appearance of money
laundering,” and also acknowledges some
things were done wrong” in
the disbursement of the
community’s money without
the knowledge of the leadership team and the entire
Board. If that is the case, why did Chairman Muah
not use his power and
authority to ask for a neutral
and independent body to
investigate Skinner’s
actions?
Is this a replay of
President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf looking the other way
while Harry Greaves signed his
unilateral energy contracts at
the Liberian Petroleum
Refining Corporation (LPRC)?
Walter
Skinner claimed I was wrong
when I wrote that he used the
Liberian Community
Association’s 501c3
tax-exempt status to secure
the contract and money from
Partnership for Community
Action Inc, a group whose
President & CEO Mohamad
Saleem I interviewed for the
June 22, 2009 article. According to
Skinner, he
signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with the
group but never met its
President & CEO Mohamad
Saleem. To prove his selective
amnesiac, Walter Skinner did
not take with him to the
meeting we had with his Board
Chairman a signed copy of the
MOU. Instead, he brought with
him an unsigned copy for his
own convenience. Up to this
day, however, I have yet to
see a signed copy of the
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
from Partnership for Community
Action Inc.
If the energy project was
about the community and the
checks in question were
written in the name of LAMA,
wouldn’t it be wise for
every penny to be deposited
into the association’s
account until the Liberian
Association of Metropolitan
Atlanta decides what it wanted
to do with its own money,
especially at a time when the
community association plans to
embark on securing a building
(community center) project of
its own?
However,
in an e-mail to Board members
dated July 18, 2009,
Sylvestine Payne, who is also
a LAMA Board member writes:
“Any organization that uses
LAMA 501 c status or its name
must submit all monies to LAMA
for disbursing and LAMA should
receive at least 40 -50
percent of the income. Now, if
payments or stipend is to be
made to individuals for
manning a program or event it
should be the administration
responsibility to inform
the Board and such payment
amount should have the
board's approval.”
During
the meeting, Board Member Joe
Reeves even asked Walter
Skinner these questions, which
were later shoved under the
rug. He asked: “Was the MOU signed in
consultation with the board?
In terms of compensation of
the workers, was it done in
consultation of the board?”
Skinner answered: “No, it
was an administrative
function.”
I
want Walter Skinner to show me
the section in LAMA’s Constitution
where it is
written that he, Walter B.
Skinner can negotiate
contracts unilaterally for the
community association and can
use the community’s name and
documents to
get money he alone can
distribute with his then-unemployed
friends and non-due paying
members without the knowledge
of the community association, the entire
Board, the vice president,
treasurer and his entire
leadership team.
The
investigative piece, “In
Whose Interest: Walter B.
Skinner, His Friends, or The
Liberian Association of
Metropolitan Atlanta
(LAMA)?” generated much
discussion and aggression in
the Liberian Community, and
even revealed the pugilistic
sides of LAMA President Walter
B. Skinner and William B.K.G.
Harris, Pastor of the
International Christian
Fellowship (ICF), both of whom
came close to assaulting me
physically at the end of the
program held at the Vision of
Faith United Methodist Church that brought
Ambassador Roland Barnes to
Atlanta months ago, only to be restrained
by other Liberians who
didn’t want to see any kind
of violence in the house of
God.
On
the issue regarding Rev.
William B. G. K Harris of the
International Christian
Fellowship (ICF), he’s carrying around
with him a decade-old grudge
he has for me for an
investigative article I wrote
in the 1990s for The
Perspective Newspaper, which delved into his
church’s finances, and
explored his autocratic
leadership style for which
this “man of God” cannot
stand me, and has bombarded me
with numerous harassing phone
calls (which I recorded for my
records), and has also hounded
me at every public gathering
whenever he sees me.
However, Walter
Skinner claimed I am out to
assassinate his character when
I wrote the article in
question, but quickly forgot
the fact that I am still the
same individual who came to
his defense in articles and
public speeches before and
after the 2007 community
elections, when former
President Sue Yancy Williams
publicly trashed his character
and accused him constantly of corruption
during her administration when
he was treasurer; allegations
of alleged corruption that
still haunts him today.
So
why did I defend this man
against former President Sue
Yancy Williams so aggressively
only to destroy a
two-decade plus friendship
with the Williams’? I did it
for the love of community –
a community I have been a
registered due-paying member
of for close to three decades,
and a community I once served
as president.
I
wholeheartedly supported
Walter B. Skinner and wrote
opinion pieces in his favor
against his opponent, Sue
Yancy Williams, because I
thought he was the most
qualified person at the time;
and like most Liberians at the
time, I too believed that Sue
Yancy-Williams did not
articulate her case well
against Skinner, and didn’t
show why she wanted Liberians
to re-elect her to another
two-year term.
After
the June 22, 2009 article was
published on this site; a
member of their Board, Joe
Reeves even called me at night
pleading with me to kill the
piece for the sake of
community unity. After I
refused to kill the piece, I
was called into a meeting
before the community’s Board
of Directors – almost like a
military tribunal to explain
why I wrote such an article in
the first place.
Sitting
with that group was like
sitting among sharks waiting
to be devoured for being in
the wrong place at the wrong
time. The meeting was
one-sided and the criticisms
elementary with all fingers
pointed at me for revealing
alleged corruption in the
community, as I was being
referred to as “not a
journalist", as "that
person", "my
articles are full of mistakes
and not balanced,” and that
“The Liberian Dialogue is
not registered with the
Secretary of State’s office;
I am not a credentialed
writer, and I should identify
myself at the end of every
article I write like my
contributing writers do,”
even though I am the editor
and publisher of The Liberian
Dialogue;
and finally, I was
“chastised” for using the
word “offshoot” to
describe the Greenville
Development Association as an
offshoot of the Sinoe County
Association in the Americas”
(What a joke!), which had
nothing whatsoever to do with
the meeting and charges of
alleged corruption in the
community.
This
is the childishness my wife
and I had to sit through for
close to three hours that day
when Board Members and
“Friends of Skinners” took
me to task for exposing their
friend. Instead of
these guys giving me a 90-day
ultimatum to retract my last
article, I will not retract it
because I am ready for this
fight. This is one fight I
will never run from. Now is the
time. I am ready to fight.
Below
are the stubs of the checks
issued in the name of the
Liberian Association of
Metropolitan Atlanta (LAMA).
The checks were cashed and the
money, $4,403.70 was
distributed between Walter B.
Skinner and his
then-unemployed friends some
of whom are non-due paying
members of LAMA. Below also
are the names of the
recipients of funds.
Benna,
Christina --------
$600.00
Expenses
---------------
$324.96
Gabbidon,
Lauramae … $650.00
Kiawu,
Hassan ………...$200.00
Kingdom
Destiny Ministry
$150.00
LAMA
…………………
$345.70
Lewis,
Joan ………………
$100.00
Prevot,
Rose …………… $150.00
Ricks,
Harold ………………
$700.00
Skinner,
Walter B…………..
$900.00
Supplies
(WFCI Tuner) ……
$33.04
World
Fellowship Church, Int’l
$250.00
Check
stubs below
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