Kofi Woods Wants President Sirleaf Resign; But--

Former Public Works Minister Samuel K. Woods in response to the call by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for him to take full responsibility of events at the Ministry of Public Works has called on the president and other officials of government to act in similar manner as he did by quitting from government. Woods resigned from government and said he remains opened to all forms of public scrutiny as he is willing to prove his innocence in any wrongdoing and is now requesting President Sirleaf and other officials to do the same.

Responding to the President comments Woods said "I urge the President and other officials to take a page from my book. I voluntarily resigned from public service, remained in Liberia, submitted to two concurrent audits and continue to avail myself of any process consistent with the laws of our country. In this my guilt or innocence will be decided!"

The former Minister expressed that he fully agrees with President Sirleaf for taking responsibility for the situation at NOCAL as head of the government and he is also accepting responsibility for any wrong at the Ministry of Public Works. "I have not and will not shy from any wrong that I may have done as Minister of Public Works. I have repeatedly said both in public and in private and in my various communications to the President that I stand ready for any scrutiny. I implore the Government of Liberia to do what is right for the Liberian People" said Woods.

Woods is also challenging the government of Liberia to take him to court to enable him answer to his stewardship at the Public Works Ministry. Said Woods: "I therefore challenge the government to do what is right, take me to a court of competent jurisdiction to answer for my stewardship". The human rights lawyer indicated that he is grateful that Liberia is reaching a point where the culture of impunity will be addressed by officials accounting for their actions.

"I am grateful that we are reaching the point where we can collectively end impunity and ensure that we account to the Liberian People for our stewardship both past and present. We appear to be ushering the age of accountability", declares Woods. Recently, Woods commenting on the ongoing saga at NOCAL where the entity is about to lay off a number of employees called on President Sirleaf to take responsibility for the crisis.

Addressing a group of women, Woods said "The leadership of this country is fully responsible and must take responsibility of what's happening at NOCAL, all the things they are talking about giving them severance pay is not correct... giving those guys money is not adequate, it is insufficient and is limited you cannot talk about an oil company collapsing and you are talking about retiring the head of the entity and giving him severance pay, how can you give people money at an Oil Company that has collapsed?"