The head of Liberia Anti Corruption Commission (LACC), Ndubuisi Nwabudike, has resigned, amid allegations that he obtained the citizenship of the West African country illegally, the government said on Tuesday
President George Weah appointed Nwabudike, a naturalised Liberian citizen of Nigerian descent, as the chairperson of the country’s anti-corruption commission in 2019.
There are reports that the parents Nwabudike are from Delta State in Nigeria.
However, political opponents of the footballer-turned-president began to question whether Nwabudike obtained his citizenship legally after Weah nominated him as chairman of the election commission.
The Supreme Court later confirmed that he had obtained his citizenship properly.
On Tuesday, the government published a statement, declaring that Nwabudike had nonetheless offered his resignation, which will take effect on February 26.
“It does not serve the overall strategic interest of your government and our people if I were to constitute a distraction from the national agenda that your government is poised to deliver to our people,” Nwabudike was quoted in the statement to have said.
The anti-corruption chief is a lawyer by training who had served as a graft investigator in the country of about 5 million people before Weah appointed him as the anti-corruption boss.
Voters in Liberia went to the polls in December in an election that occurred alongside a referendum on reducing presidential terms and allowing dual nationality.
The final results have still not been published, because votes in some areas of the country are delayed because of violence and allegations of fraud.
Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world, is still recovering after back to back civil wars from 1989 to 2003 and West Africa’s Ebola crisis between 2014 and 2
