-At Liberia Embassy in Nigeria
Mr. Titus B. Pakalah, a Human Rights Defender of March for Justice is calling on President Joseph Nyumah Boakai to withdraw the appointment of Amb. Al-Hassan Conteh for allegedly facilitating and compromising a rape case of a seven-year-old manor at Liberia diplomatic Mission in Abuja, Nigeria.
Speaking in an exclusive interview via WhatsApp, Mr. Pakalah urged the Liberian leader to withdraw Dr Conteh’s appointment as acting President of the University of Liberia and plan Ambassador to the United States of America.
According to him, he wants to use this time to kindly remind President Boakai that Amb. Conteh remains on record for intentionally supervising and compromising a rape case of a 7-year-old Liberian girl right on the premises of the Liberian Diplomatic Mission in Abuja, the Federal Republic of Nigeria where he has been ambassador for over the past 15 years.
He further indicated that strange enough, this seven-year-old victim, the daughter of another Liberian diplomat was gang-raped multiple times by two dependents of a fellow diplomatefrom 2020-2021.
Strange enough, this 7-year-old victim, the daughter of another Liberian diplomat, was gang-raped multiple times by two dependents of a fellow diplomat from 2020 to 2021.
” Instead of doing the needful as Liberia’s Ambassador under whose watch these gruesome evil acts took place right under his noses, Amb. Conteh rather chose to cover up the incident. And when it became public, Amb. Conteh provided cogent argument in defense of the rapists instead of even showing empathy to the 7-year-old pitiful victim” Mr. Pakalah noted.
The human rights activists stated that Amb. Conteh’s alleged actions knowingly violated Article 3, Section 21.1 of the Children’s Law of Liberia which states that: “Every child shall have the right to be protected from sexual abuse and exploitation, including prostitution and pornography”.
Furthermore, he noted that Amb. Conteh now interim management head of the UL did not implement a safeguard policy to protect the 7-year-old girl from rape while serving as ambassador in Nigeria, thereby defining himself as a rape apologist.
“Mr. President, your recent appointment of Dr. Conteh to head the UL’s Interim Management as well as your reported preference for this identical rape-apologist to become Liberia’s ambassador to the United States place a very dark cloud over your leadership’s ambition to “Think Liberia, Love and Build Liberia”. We cannot “Think Liberia, Love Liberia, and Build Liberia” when Amb. Conteh, a rape apologist, is being appointed to very crucial positions in your Administration” he mentioned.
However, he added that in 2021, they gathered the medical report from the Nigerian Police Medical Center in Abuja which confirmed the gang rape of the minor.
“We filed a formal complaint to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection but no one could listen to us since Amb. Conteh was part of a political power system. We led several indoor meetings and sit-in actions explaining our discontentment, but there was extreme reluctance from the George Weah Administration to take any meaningful action against the very ambassador nor the rapists” Mr. Pakalahdisclosed.
Meanwhile, he said that they have received confirmed reports that President Boakai will also be appointing Amb. Conteh as the country’s ambassador to the United States.
“This is an even more worrisome and terrifying report that President Boakai has already picked Amb. Conteh to be Liberia’s Ambassador to the United States. Even Amb. Contehhimself knows that his records at the very university make him very unfit to even temporarily lead that state-run University even for a day, not to mention being temporary or acting president for a few months” he warned the government.
Mr. Pakalah pointed out that Amb. Conteh who couldn’t intervene in a rape case that almost took the life of an innocent seven-year-old Liberian girl should not be heading even if temporarily the UL where we have thousands of female compatriots pursuing quality tertiary education.
He believes that even worse, Amb. Conteh who could only provide protection for the rapists of a seven-year-old girl and not the victim herself cannot be the ambassador to the country’s foremost traditional ally, the United States.
” President Boakai, our country is yet to even recover from the embarrassing news of when our former ambassador to the very United States sexually harassed a female staff at our United Nations Permanent Mission in New York. Please drop any intended nomination of any rape apologist like Amb. Conteh to go to the United States while we appeal that you kindly withdraw his current position as Acting President of the UL’s Management Team” he concluded.
