More
Worries For Former LFA Boss
By Julu M. Johnson, Jr.
The United Nations is seemingly creating
tough times for the former president of the Liberia Football
Association (LFA).
Sources closed to the UN peace keepers in
Monrovia, under the banner of UNMIL, said the luxurious Paynesville
compound of the former LFA boss Edwin Snowe was searched on
Wednesday.
During the search, it was disclosed that several
electronic devices that Mr. Snowe is alleged to be using in giving
"sensitive information" to the former Liberian president Charles
Taylor, now in Calabar, Nigeria, while awaiting his transfer to the
UN-backed war crimes court in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
It was reported last weekend in Monrovia that Mr. Snowe
was one of the latest victims of the UN sanctions on former
associates and family members of Charles Taylor.
Accordingly, Snowe along with former Liberian Senate
President Grace Beatrice Minor and former Liberian Immigration
Commissioner Martin George had their assets frozen. They have also
been banned from traveling out of Liberia.
The latest development brings the figure close to 20
the number of former president Taylor's disciples that have been
affected by the UN sanctions.
The UN sanctions have also victimized Taylor and his
wife Jewel, former NPP Chairman Cyril Allen, former Maritime
Commissioner Benoni Urey, former Finance Minister Charles Bright,
former Lands, Mines and Energy Minister Jenkins Dunbar and former
Information Minister Reginald Goodridge.
It was former president Taylor that brought Snowe into
prominence dating back to the days of the National Patriotic Front
of Liberia (NPFL).
After Taylor overwhelmingly won the national elections of
Liberia, Snowe became Deputy Managing Director of the Liberia
Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC).
Snowe also served as Youth Chairman for the party
formed by Taylor, the NPP, and became president of the LPRC Oilers
sports association, which qualified him to become LFA president.
Mr. Snowe currently heads the Liberian Petroleum
Refining Company (LPRC). His status as LPRC boss led to his
resignation from the LFA.
Snowe was once married to Taylor's elder daughter, Zoe.
The relationship was later to collapse. Snowe went on to marry
Mardea White Carey.
During the Taylor's administration, Snowe made Liberia
a beneficiary of the FIFA Gold project at the Antoinette Tubman
Stadium (ATS). Although an artificial turf was laid at the tiny
stadium, the buck of the project has yet to be completed.
With allegations that a lion share of the money from FIFA
went into his personal pocket, Snowe shamefully promised to complete
the project while leaving the LFA presidency.
Snowe, along with George Weah and current LFA president
Izetta Wesley, was appointed to various committees in the African
football confederation (CAF). But the UN sanctions will surely cost
his duty with CAF.
Come the Liberian general elections in 2005,
Snowe is said to be interested in contesting for the legislative
seat at the Liberian parliament on behalf of Montserrado County.
But the situation that he has found himself in
may pose a threat to his parliamentarian dream. At the same time,
Snowe risks losing his fat job at the LPRC, for which he is often
called "Minister of Oil."
Once upon a time, a Taylor associate, Ramsey
Moore, was removed as head of the National Security Agency (NSA) in
the ruling transitional government for allegedly relating security
information to the exiled Liberian dictator.
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