George Weah Linked To Rebels Group MODEL By Two Lone Star Players

 

By Josephus Moses Gray
Monrovia, Liberia
Jmoses1970@theperspective.org


The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
November 2, 2005

 

It has been revealed that George Weah, a flag-bearer of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) and one of the two presidential candidates in the November 8 run off election, is a supporter of the disbanded rebel group-Movement for democracy in Liberia (MODEL). But Mr. Weah has vehemently reacted to the allegations, saying that all are propaganda against him, and should not be taken for granted.

The rebel movement which has been accused of summary executions, human rights abuses and maltreatment of innocent Liberia is dominated by members of the Krahn ethnic group.

Above 95 percents of the executives of the rebel MODEL faction are staunch supporters of the CDC.

This latest allegation seems to be contrary to the wide spread perception in Liberia that the CDC’s presidential hopeful, George Weah, is a unifier and did not support the destruction of Liberia during the throes of the civil war. This information, emanating from two of Weah’s close associates and former teammates of Lone Star, seems to be a credible information suggesting that the former UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador supported MODEL, one of the rebel groups that fought against the former regime of Mr. Charles Taylor. Many of MODEL’s officials at the Maritime and Social Security have been accused of rampant corruption.

Dionysius Sebwe and Jonathan Sogbe alias Boye Charle, who appear on Tuesday at Sky 107 F.M. 50-50 Talk Show said Mr. Weah in no way could look in their faces and deny his support to MODEL.

The rebel MODEL faction was formed in Philadelphia, USA. CDC also originated from USA before being established in Liberia.

According to Dionysius, while in America, Weah knew all about the major advances of MODEL during the days of the 2003 crisis. They said, Weah is not a clean man neither is he infallible or a unifier as claimed, and as such, Liberians need to understand who Weah actually is.

Commenting on their one time team’s captain presidential bid, the two players maintained that Weah’s soccer popularity can in no way be equated with political leadership as perceived in Liberia. “Weah is incompetent, he was ineffective on Lone Star and above all he’s just not the ideal character for the presidency” they insisted.

As of his sponsorship of Lone Star, something which Liberians believe that Weah did exceptional well, the two players said Weah received more than what he spent on the National team.

They said Weah stole from the Lone Star by inflating the cost of ticket (plane), not making proper accountability, and his refusal to compensate players from a huge raising charity match in Mexico and Colombia.

They said Weah is a character who took things personal thereby bringing what they described as “Division on the national team”.

They said their comments on the involvement of Weah were targeted to creating and open awareness on Weah activities and avoiding the judgment of history should Weah fail the Liberian people, if elected president.

In a personal cheat, Boye Charle, revealed that Weah told him in Zurich, Switerzeland in 1997 that he (Weah) was going to take over Liberia.

Disappointingly, he noted Mr. Weah who had the aim of becoming president since 1997 did not educationally prepare himself for the task of the Liberian presidency.

Weah, he noted, as a professional soccer player and a great traveler across the world had sufficient time to go to school and better prepare himself.

According to them, the notion that educated people have failed Liberian is wrong because if that is true, nobody will go to school because they are potential failure. Our comments, the pointed out, are being true to Liberia ourselves and children unborn, they stressed.

But Mr. Weah has vehemently reacted to the allegations, saying that all are propaganda against him, and should not be taken for granted but the leaderships of MODEL and the Liberia Football Association (LFA) are yet to formally debunk the allegations.