According to sources, Mr. Monie Hooke Momolu, Special Assistant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, obtained the emergency traveling document that Mr. Henry Pedro Costa, Liberia’s talk show host and Chairman of the Council of Patriots, used to enter into Liberia on December 19, 2019.
Costa, who had organized two anti-government protests, attempted to leave the country on Friday, January 10, 2020, when he was alerted that the traveling document he used to enter the country was unauthentic and had been forged. He was denied from leaving the county until further notice.
The following day, Costa appeared at LIS and wrote a statement in which he told the officers that since he was not in Liberia to apply for the traveling document himself, he sent US$20 to Mr. Sylvester Tevez Nah, an employee of his. He said it was Tevez, who had obtained the document and sent it to him so he couldn’t have known if it was forged.
Based on the evidence, LIS decided to launch an investigation and requested Costa to appear for further questioning. LIS quickly discovered Costa had fled and immediately declared him fugitive.
More fuel was added to the drama early Wednesday, January 15, when it was reported that Costa had been arrested on Tuesday in neighboring Sierra Leone by that country’s government and would be repatriated and handed over to the Liberian authority on Wednesday afternoon.
Sierra Leone subsequently allowed Costa to continue his journey to the United States.
Sylvester Tevez Nah, Costa accomplice who allegedly fled to Sierra Leone with him, reportedly phoned the head of LIS, Col. Robert Budy, and told him he was coming back to turn himself in.
Tevez told the investigation team that he had handed the document over to one lady (name not given) whom Costa had told him to deliver it to and that was his role played in the whole process. According to Tevez: “ I just dropped it with this lady and never asked her for name or information as she was on her way to the States the next day.”
According to sources, the document Costa used might have been done sometime in November 2019 but was post-dated to fit in time with Costa’s arrival in December 2019.
Tevez, on Friday, January 17, resigned as Manager of the Sancos Media Group and Operations Manager of Roots Holdings, Inc, a business entity owned and operated by Henry Costa.
According to LinkedIn, a professional online social network, Monie Hooke Momoly is still employed at Liberia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
