Liberia’s new president George Weah has bowed to intense pressure and replaced his choice for justice minister after local media reported lawyer Charles Gibson was stripped of his licence for embezzling from client.
A statement withdrawing the nomination
“with immediate effect” was issued late Wednesday following the first
serious hiccup for the ex-football star since being sworn in for a
six-year term on January 22.
Gibson, a high-profile legal figure,
was once suspended by the Supreme Court for duping a client out of
$25,000, and was ordered to repay the costs.
He will be replaced by Musa Dean,
previously a lawyer with the National Elections Commission (NEC), who
battled Weah’s political opponents in the Supreme Court as they tried to
delay the presidential vote that the sportsman won in a landslide.
The new nomination must be approved by the senate.
Weah has given posts to a mixture of
inexperienced but loyal figures from his Congress for Democratic Change
(CDC) party, along with some key members held over from the former
government.
The former AC Milan and Paris St
Germain star has slashed the price of rice and taken a personal pay cut
of 25 percent since his inauguration, after campaigning on a platform to
raise living standards and tackle corruption.
AFP
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