By By: Staff Writer
Monrovia, Liberia – — President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s credibility on corruption is being tested after former Executive Mansion Chief of Protocol Finda Bundoo publicly thanked him for intervening in her case while she faces prosecution by the Assets Recovery and Property Retrieval Task Force he established.
Speaking at her father’s funeral over the weekend, Bundoo said the government allowed her to bury her father instead of being detained at South Beach. “Thank you to the Government of Liberia, and thank you to His Excellency President Joseph Nyuma Boakai… God did not want it because some of my own people wanted me to be in jail,” she said. She also praised Deputy Speaker Thomas P. Fallah: “Thomas Fallah stood by me. Big brother, Papa, forget about politics. At the time, you stood by me and said, ‘She is my own.’”
Bundoo is on trial at Criminal Court C on charges including Money Laundering, Theft of Public Money, Misuse of Public Records, Forgery, and Criminal Conspiracy. Court records show she first filed a US$435,560 property bond on June 10, which Judge Ousman F. Feika rejected on July 3 for “compromised sureties.” She was given 72 hours and on July 6 filed a revised US$240,000 bond, approved July 7.
That public gratitude now puts AREPT in an awkward position. If the task force was created to be independent, why is a defendant thanking the President for her pre-trial liberty? Did the court process proceed without political influence, or has AREPT become subject to the same patronage it was meant to dismantle?
The questions intensify with reports that Bundoo is set to join NIMBO, the movement organized by Deputy Speaker Fallah to support President Boakai’s 2029 re-election and endorsed by the President. Is NIMBO becoming a political cover for accused officials? And if loyalty to the ruling establishment can secure relief from prosecution, what does that say about the fairness of Boakai’s anti-corruption agenda?
The Ministry of Justice and AREPT have not commented. Until they explain how Bundoo’s case was handled, Liberians are left to decide whether President Boakai is strengthening the fight against corruption, or quietly weakening the very institution he built to lead it.
