By Olando Testimony Zeongar
MONROVIA – Following an alleged assassination attempt on the life of former Chief Justice, Cllr. Gloria Maya Musu-Scott, which resulted to the gruesome murder of her daughter, Charloe Musu, on 22 February 2023, family members of the ex-Chief Justice have disclosed that they are disappointed with the George Weah-led government over how the administration has allegedly tried to make it appear like Cllr. Scott is evading justice after the fatal incident at her Brewerville residence.
Cllr. Scott’s family made the disclosure last weekend, noting that it was bringing to the attention of the public and the international community, its disappointment with the Government.
Contrary to reports that Cllr. Scott was not cooperating with police investigators, the family reiterated that on Thursday, February 23, 2023, the day immediately following the fatal incident, Police IG Patrick Sudie and other officials including Police spokesman, Moses Carter, went to the 16th Street residence of Cllr. Scott and spoke with her.
Following such interaction, the family narrated that the Police issued an initial statement by and through the Police spokesman Carter, insinuating that the assassin might have been a domestic worker only because there had been hired electricians working in the house on that fateful day, even though there were two initial attacks on the 8th and 9th of February 2023, two nights in a row, when no hired contractors had been at the former Chief Justice’s Brewerville residence, which the family said, were by the way, reported to the Police.
“On the same Thursday February 23, 2023, another team of Police investigators including Abu B. Daramy, Jerry K. M. Wymah and George K. Quoi went to the 16th Street Residence also questioned Cllr. Scott, in the presence of Attorney General Musa Dean, and Godson Kollie, another family and the one who spent the day with the electricians on that fateful day. This exercise continued even by phone,” the family emphasized.
To further debunk assertions that Cllr. Scott was not cooperating with police in their investigation, the family added that again, on March 2, 2023, Police investigators including Monroe A. Dennis, II, Chief Investigator of the LNP, Abu B. Daramy and Jerry K. M. Wymah of the Homicide Division visited the 16th Street residence of Cllr. Scott and extracted written statements from the victims and family members, especially those who were in the house on the night of the incident including Cllr. Gloria M. Musu-Scott; Ma Rebecca Youdeh Wisner (Aunty Youdeh); Gertrude Newton and Alice C. Johnson.
“At the conclusion, the investigators said that they will do a questionnaire from the statements and make a follow-up for further clarification on their written statements, the family added.
Howbeit, Cllr. Scott’s family members, who stated that they are victims of the 22 February incident but are now being treated like suspects, pointed out that just to justify the information put in the wider public that the ex-Chief Justice was not cooperating with the Police in their investigation, surprisingly to the family, on the evening of Thursday, March 2, 2023, the Police without direct notice or call to the victims, placed an open invitation on local radios and social media platforms for Justice Gloria M. Musu-Scott, Ma Rebecca Youdeh Wisner (Aunty Youdeh), Gertrude Newton and Alice C. Johnson to appear at the National Police Headquarters by 10:00 am on Friday, March 3, 2023, and that failure to do same, the LNP would have been left with no option but to take legal action.
“It is important to note that the family after considering the public comments and actions of top government officials and state actors including the Chairman of the ruling coalition and knowing that they were in bad faith and not in the spirit and intent of taking into consideration the pain and hardship being undergone by the Musu family by the unknown murderer, the family decided that she is guided by lawyers in all subsequent interactions with the Police in this matter,” said the family, in a statement issued to the press recently.
The family revealed that after what it described as a sustained publicity stunt through which the government tried to make it appear as if Justice Scott was evading the investigation regarding the 22 February incident, the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, ex-Minister of Justice, former Senator of Maryland County, and former Chairperson of the country’s Constitution Review Commission, among other national services, along with some members of her family including an elderly female citizen, who the family said are victims, were kept for several hours at the Police Headquarters of the Liberia National Police on Friday, March 3, 2023, and were asked to report to the Headquarters the following day by 10 am to go to the crime scene where the murder of Charloe took place.
However, “Interestingly, on Saturday,” the family further disclosed, Justice Scott along with her family went to the Police Headquarters again only to be told by investigators that the police forgot the day after Friday would be Saturday, and that due to traffic congestion in the Monrovia suburban of Duala, the LNP deferred the scheduled meeting to Monday, the 6th of March 2023.
“The family, therefore, craves the involvement of international partners to assist with an independent investigation into this matter to ensure that due process of law is attained into this murder and assault,” noted the family, which suspects an attempt allegedly on the part of some officials of government and state actor to compromise the ongoing probe into the gruesome murder of Charloe and the alleged assassination attempt on the life of Cllr. Scott.
The family laments that this is not the only case that has been downplayed, stating that “It can be recalled that there have been series of murders in our country where the proper investigations are yet to either be commenced or completed.”
Members of Cllr. Scott’s family then pointed out that this is why they were enlisting the help of the international community in these matters.
In an apparent reference to the ruling party’s chairman Mulbah Morlu’s assertion that the murdered young lady was not the biological daughter of Cllr. Scott, the family stated that it maintains that in line with their Grebo tradition, custom and practices and the quarters of the Boedior (High Priest), the murdered Charloe Musu is the daughter of Cllr. Gloria Maya Musu-Scott.
The family recalls that on Thursday, March 2, 2023, the Chairman of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change – CDC, Mulbah K. Morlu had a Press Conference at the CDC Headquarters in Sinkor immediately after the Liberian Women Sit-in Action in protest at the Seat of the Legislature on Capitol Hill against the murder and assault against the Musu family, and said that Charloe Musu was not the biological daughter of Cllr. Musu-Scott and that he was therefore going to Maryland to find the biological parents of the late Charloe Musu.
“The CDC Chairman also said that Charloe was killed for ritualistic purposes and further called an autopsy to be conducted on the remains of Charloe Musu,” the family further recalled.
Meanwhile, the family has made the call for members of the public and those it described as progenitors of what it termed an uncultured and untraditional statement that the late Charloe Musu, who attended the Soltiamon Christian School, graduated from the Lott Carey Mission School, and was a prospective graduate of the STARZ College of Technology, was not the biological daughter of Cllr. Scott, to refrain from such.
