Zuluyee Town — Nimba County District Number 8 Representative, Saye Sylvester Mianah, has threatened the life of FrontPage Africa's Nimba County correspondent, Franklin Doloquee, for reporting on significant corruption taking place in the county.
Journalist Franklin Doloquee, on Friday, August 9, 2024, reported two corruption cases that linked Representative Mianah and Superintendent Kou Meapeh Gono.
The corruption report also involved former senator and now Vice President Jeremiah Koung, Representative Dorwohn Twain Gleekia of District Number 6, Representative Mianah, and Superintendent Kou Meapeh Gono, among others.
According to Journalist Doloquee, while, he, along with other journalists, was providing media coverage for District Number 2 Representative Nya Garsaye Flomo Sr., who had gone in the district to dedicate several projects and thank the citizens of Gar Clan for electing him during the 2024 elections at weekend, Rep. Mianah singled him out among his colleagues at the ceremony and openly threatened to "go after him".
"One journalist named Franklin Doloquee is destroying Nimba daily. I don't know where he learned his journalism from. He is not a journalist. Please be very with careful him. Anytime he reports on lawmakers from Nimba County, we will go after him," Representative Mianah stated.
"A few days ago, he reported on me and Superintendent Meapeh Gono being involved in the sale of scrap from Lao Clan. He reported this story. He needs to be very careful. We lawmakers are different; we will not allow it to go free", continued Rep. Mianah.
Last week, DOloquee co-authored an investigative report detailing how Nimba County Superintendent Kou Meapeh Gono and Rep. Mianah are instructing the illegal removal of scrap assets belonging to ArcelorMittal Liberia (AML).
The scraps were gathered as a result of ongoing work on the railway, involving the repair of a damaged bridge and replacing old wooden ties with new steel sleepers as part of the company's phase two expansion project to beef up the rail's capacity.
ArcelorMittal intends to donate the scrap to communities in an orderly manner, where 30% of sales would go to the county authority, while 70% would go to the communities. Contrary to this agreement, our investigation finds that ArcelorMittal has had to stop many attempts by individuals, seemingly acting on instructions from local county leaders in Bong and Nimba, to remove the scrap assets illegally ahead of the formal handover.
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Community members in Nimba have pointed accusing fingers at Superintendent Kou Meapeh Gono and District 8 Representative Saye Sylvester Mianah, claiming they are behind the unauthorized removal of the scrap. These communities fear that without proper controls, and with instructions from top county leaders, they are not assured of fair development dividends.
Reports indicate this is the second threatening statement from Representative Mianah toward Journalist Doloquee.
Two years ago, Journalist Doloquee reported a corruption story from Gbahn Town on the Ganta-Saclepea highway, where Representative Mianah, at the time running to be the representative of District Number 8, was awarded a guest house project by former Representative and now Vice President Jeremiah Koung.
The lawmaker failed to complete the work satisfactorily, and aggrieved citizens rejected the $45,000 USD project.
Several citizens of District Number Two who witnessed the lawmaker's statement have called on Journalist Franklin Doloquee "to be very careful when reporting on corruption".
