Published: September 23, 2026
MONROVIA – Former Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah Jr., whose own acquittal on corruption charges remains clouded by a court-ordered jury tampering investigation, has accused the Boakai administration of manufacturing criminal cases to damage political opponents, calling the drug prosecution of former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor “bogus.”
“Government must not invent cases to go to court,” Tweah said on Facebook on Tuesday. He said the government was “manufacturing cases to go to court” even when officials know they cannot win, in order to damage opponents politically.
“The government is manufacturing evidence, including a bogus drug case against the former Vice President, Jewel Howard-Taylor,” he said.
Tweah offered no evidence that any case had been fabricated.
Howard-Taylor was detained in August after she was stopped from leaving for Ghana through Roberts International Airport, and was charged in connection with an alleged transnational narcotics trafficking network. Prosecutors accuse her of illicit trafficking, criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation, criminal solicitation and money laundering, alleging that she met members of the network in Dubai, received payments totaling [US$]135,000 and used her influence to assist or protect it. Prosecutors have charged three foreign nationals in absentia. Howard-Taylor denies the charges, and her lawyers have called the case baseless and politically motivated. On Sept. 4, Criminal Court ‘C’ moved her from the Monrovia Central Prison to home detention on medical grounds.
Tweah also criticized the prosecution of Jerry Nyantee Wrato, who was arrested over AI-generated images and videos of Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung. Tweah said Koung initially opposed taking Wrato to court before being persuaded by associates to proceed.
The public record does not support that account. Koung publicly called for Wrato’s release on Sept. 19 and said he did not wish to press charges, and in a Sept. 21 letter to Koung, Inspector General of Police Gregory O. W. Coleman said police would prosecute regardless. Tweah had earlier thanked Koung on social media for calling for Wrato’s release. Criminal Court “B” ordered Wrato released from police custody Tuesday on a writ of habeas corpus.
Tweah’s remarks come as questions remain over his own case. A jury acquitted him and former Financial Intelligence Agency Comptroller D. Moses P. Cooper on May 8 of all charges, including economic sabotage, theft of property, money laundering, criminal conspiracy and criminal facilitation, in a case involving more than US$6.2 million and L$1 billion. The same jury convicted former National Security Adviser Jefferson Karmoh and former Solicitor General Nyenati Tuan on some counts and returned a split verdict on former FIA Director General Stanley Ford.
Three of the 15 jurors later filed sworn affidavits alleging breaches of sequestration, including access to mobile phones, attendance at social gatherings during the trial and unauthorized contact with outsiders. Tweah’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to block Criminal Court “C” Judge Ousman F. Feika from investigating after the jury had been discharged. Associate Justice Yussif D. Kaba initially stayed the inquiry but later declined to halt it and ordered that it proceed in open court. On July 21, Feika ordered the arrest of the jurors and a criminal investigation by the Ministry of Justice, ruling that the acquittal could not stand unchallenged while the allegations remained
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