Citizenship: Liberia’s anti-corruption boss Nwabudike resigns

 

The head of Liberia’s anti-corruption commission has resigned, the government said on Tuesday, amid allegations that he obtained his citizenship of the West African state illegally.

President George Weah appointed Nigerian-born Ndubusi Nwabudike, a naturalised Liberian citizen, as the chair of the country’s anti-corruption commission, in 2019.

There are reports that his parents are from Delta State, Nigeria, according to The Punch.

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 last year.

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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 as saying.

The anti-corruption chief is a lawyer by training who had served as a graft investigator in the nation of about five million people before Weah appointed him to his role.