Senator Moye’s Office Dismisses “Milking the Country” Claim, Confronts Spoon Talk Host’s Controversial Track Record

MONROVIA, LIBERIA — March 5, 2026: The Office of Bong County Senator Prince Kermue Moye has rejected allegations broadcast on the March 3, 2026 edition of Spoon Talk, where host Stanton A. Witherspoon claimed that the senator is “milking the country” through his chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Budget and manipulating executive appointments, describing the claims as false, misleading, and reflective of Witherspoon’s history of controversial, often disputed attacks on Liberian public officials and institutions.

‎In a statement issued Wednesday, March 4, 2026 by Chief of Office Nuwoe Kellen, the senator’s office emphasized that the accusation misrepresents both the senator’s personal economic background and the constitutional structure of Liberia’s governance system, noting that Senator Moye’s wealth and business activities existed long before his entry into national politics in 2011 and therefore cannot reasonably be attributed to legislative authority.

‎“This assertion by Mr. Witherspoon is not only false but deeply misleading,” Kellen said. “Senator Moye’s wealth and economic record predate his service in the National Legislature. Any suggestion that his chairmanship of the Senate’s Ways, Means, Finance and Budget Committee is a vehicle for personal gain is utterly baseless.”

‎According to the statement, the Bong County lawmaker developed his entrepreneurial base during his teenage years, reportedly constructing his first residential property at age seventeen before expanding into cross-border commercial trade by nineteen across Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria, while also constructing another property at age twenty that has been leased to Liberia’s Civil Service Agency since 2010, developments cited by the office as documented indicators of private enterprise that preceded his legislative career.

‎“These documented business ventures illustrate decades of lawful enterprise, resilience, and self-reliance,” Kellen asserted. “They cannot be rewritten into narratives of corruption simply because the senator now serves in public office.”

‎The office further explained that the senator later expanded his economic investments through agriculture and real estate, including the development of a significant palm plantation in Bong County and the accumulation of property holdings through lawful commerce, adding that roughly half of his current assets were acquired prior to his first electoral victory, thereby contradicting claims suggesting that his financial standing emerged from political influence.

‎“To insinuate that the senator’s financial standing is a product of his legislative position is a deliberate distortion of facts,” Kellen said.

‎Responding to the broadcast’s assertion that the senator influenced executive appointments involving associates, the office stated that Liberia’s Constitution grants the authority to appoint ministers, deputies, and other executive officials solely to the President, while the Legislature’s role is limited to oversight and confirmation procedures conducted through established institutional processes, meaning that an individual senator lacks the constitutional power to install or manipulate executive branch appointments.

‎The rebuttal also argued that the broadcast narrative mirrored unverified claims circulating on social media platforms, suggesting that the alignment between the program’s commentary and anonymous online allegations indicated amplification rather than independent verification, while emphasizing that responsible journalism requires fact-checking before presenting accusations that could affect public confidence in democratic institutions.

‎The controversy emerges within a broader pattern involving Witherspoon’s talk show, which has frequently broadcast high-profile allegations against political leaders, lawmakers, and professionals that have later triggered formal rebuttals, legal disputes, or public corrections by individuals referenced during the discussions.

‎In December 2025, Witherspoon publicly admitted that earlier claims linking the administration of former President George Weah to the deaths of government auditors and the disappearance of three boys were false, stating that the narrative had been circulated as propaganda intended to weaken the former president’s political popularity, a disclosure that intensified scrutiny of the program’s editorial reliability.

‎Other allegations aired on the program have involved Representative Foday Fahnbulleh, whom the broadcaster claimed had purchased a property for a fabricated figure of $250,000 while also asserting that the lawmaker’s wife had refused to visit his home district, claims that were subsequently rejected by the lawmaker as disinformation.

‎Former Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah Jr. has also publicly announced legal action against Witherspoon following allegations made on the program, while Senate Pro-Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence was similarly referenced in a claim suggesting that senators were preparing to remove her from leadership over alleged financial misconduct related to investments in Grand Bassa County.

‎Beyond individual accusations, Witherspoon has also issued broader political claims about national governance, including commentary following the 2023 elections in which he characterized the incoming administration and members of the Unity Party government as coming to “steal, kill, and destroy,” while alleging that officials receive kickbacks from concession agreements, statements that have been widely disputed by government officials and political actors.

‎The broadcaster has also acknowledged targeting professionals within the legal and medical sectors, including forensic pathologists such as Benedict Kullie, whom he previously accused of political bias in medical findings during the previous administration before later admitting that some of those attacks were unfair.

‎Critics who challenge the credibility of the broadcaster’s allegations frequently reference his legal history in the United States, where Witherspoon pleaded guilty in August 2023 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the sale of more than 7,600 fraudulent nursing diplomas under a federal investigation known as Operation Nightingale, a case that resulted in a sentence of forty-one months imprisonment and restitution obligations totaling approximately $3.5 million.

‎Within Liberia, the broadcaster has also faced defamation disputes, including litigation involving former LISGIS Deputy Director Wilmot Smith, where a court rejected Witherspoon’s petition seeking to stop enforcement of a ruling connected to the case, developments that have further fueled debate about the boundaries between commentary, allegations, and verified reporting.

‎Against this backdrop, the office of Senator Moye maintained that the claims broadcast on March 3 represent another example of unverified accusations being presented as factual commentary, while reiterating that the senator’s economic history, legislative work, and repeated electoral victories in Bong County reflect a record of private enterprise and public service predating his current leadership role in the Senate’s financial oversight structure.