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Claim: Social media users, particularly (Facebook) are accusing Montserrado County District #11 Representative Richard Nagbe Koon of holding an American passport contrary to the Liberia law.
Verdict: DUBAWA’s investigation, including the use of Pinterest, shows that the photo of the American passport, which has gone viral, was manipulated.
Full text
Article 49 of the Liberian constitution states that “The House of Representatives shall elect once every six years a Speaker who shall be the presiding officer of that body, a Deputy Speaker, and such other officers as shall ensure the proper functioning of the House.”
In fulfilment of this article, members of the House of Representatives went to the polls on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, to elect their speaker and deputy speaker to head the House of Representatives and, by extension, the 55th legislature of Liberia.
These elections set the basis for the inauguration of the president-elect and vice president-elect, Ambassador Joseph Boakai, and Senator Jeremiah Koung.
During these elections, there were allegations that one of the two persons contesting for the speakership, Representative Richard Nagbe Koon of Montserrado County District #11, is an American citizen with an American passport.
As seen here, Facebook was flooded with posts linking Representative Koon to being an American citizen carrying an American passport.
What does the law say about dual citizenship?
According to the new Alien and Nationality law, “A Liberian citizen who holds citizenship for another country shall not be eligible for any elective public office while still a citizen of another country.”
The legislature further stated in the repeal of the Aliens and Nationality Law that “If such a person desires to contest, the person must renounce the citizenship of the other country at least one year before applying to the National Elections Commission (NEC) to contest with documentary evidence of such renunciation from the country and filed with a circuit court in Liberia.”
Here are excerpts from the new Alien and Nationality law of Liberia, as seen in the screenshot below.
So, does Mr. Koon hold an American passport, which makes him a dual citizen?
Verification
Due to the gravity of the claim, which borders on the constitution of Liberia, DUBAWA saw it necessary to investigate the passport’s authenticity.
To begin with, our researcher first contacted the accused, Representative Richard Nagbe Koon, regarding the social media passport, which bears his name and photo. The researcher wanted to determine whether the passport was authentic and truly belongs to him. In response, Representative Koon said he was not an American citizen and did not hold an American Passport.
“The passport circulating on social media is fake. I travel to America using an info pass, and there’s no way I would be a citizen of America and travel using an info pass. I have a green card that expired in 2018 in the teacher exchange programme at the University of Michigan, sponsored by the World Bank. Since it expired, I have been travelling with an Info pass, a stamp from the immigration office,” he stated.
Here are the screenshots of the interaction between Representative Koon and our researcher,
Our researcher also emailed the United States embassy in Liberia through its public affairs section, but the embassy has yet to respond to the inquiry.
We further ran a check on the passport trending on social media to ascertain the document’s authenticity using Pinterest, and it was discovered that the document was manipulated.
Why do we believe the document was manipulated?
According to the search, the passport alleged to belong to representative Koon and the original from whence it was duplicated carry the same passport number and page number as seen in the pictures below.
Conclusion
Based on all of the inquiries and investigations conducted by DUBAWA, it is evident that the copy of an American passport circulating on Facebook does not belong to Representative Koon. It was fabricated.
