SEN. BARTEKWA’S STAFF THREATENS PA’S NEWS EDITOR

As electoral year, 2029, draws nearer, Liberians have started getting at each other in an attempt to maximize their chances to national leadership positions even at the detriment of the ordinary citizens.

Such a behavior was what a staff in the office of Grand County Senator, T. H. Numene Bartekwa, Mr. Ezekiel Sartee Wleh, exhibited on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, when he threatened Public Agenda Newspaper news editor, D. Moses Wantu, himself a citizen of Grand Kru.

“When we get in the county, you will see”, Mr. Wleh allegedly told journalist Want on Capitol Hill, but Wantu reacted by telling Wleh that he, Wantu, cannot be found or pick up on the radar of the Senator’s men, who he claims are targeting the Grand Kru Senator’s perceived opponents.

Mr. Wleh, according to journalist Wantu, made the threat during an argument over the Grand Kru Technical College’s alleged inability to begin the construction of its own building despite a donation by the local authority of several acres of land for use.

Wantu argued that the College should have by now constructed its own facility because it was created since 2015, put on the national budget since 2019 and should not by now be squatting in an annex of the Barclayville Central High School, an argument that reportedly infuriated Mr. Wleh, Senator Bartekwah’s office staff.

Wantu also alleged that Wleh claimed that he Journalist D. Moses Wantu, hates Senator Bartekwa and that is why he Wantu once wrote a story in which he allegedly linked the Senator to the death of a lady only identified as Teka, who reportedly died under mysterious circumstances in Barclayville, Grand Kru County in 2016, an allegation the journalist has vehemently denied. 

Wleh, according to journalist Wantu, further alleged that he Wantu had also written a story in the Hot Pepper News Paper in recent years.

Wantu said the Senator’s staff made the allegations and threats in the presence of others, who tried to calm him down, urging him to desist because the information he had provided is false and misleading because journalist Wantu has at no time worked for the Hot Pepper Newspaper.

The witnesses, according to the journalist, also told the Senator’s staff that the author of the story he made reference to must have been written by another Grand Kru County journalist, who must have worked for the Hot Pepper.

“This is the D. Moses Wantu, who campaigned for Sekpeh Tonnie or Roseline Sneh. He even wrote against Senator Bartekwa about the death of Teka in the Hot Prepper Newspaper, I even have a copy in my possession. you hate Bartekwa, but you will see when we get in Grand Kru County. You are a subject of discussion in our office”, journalist Wantu quoted the Senator Bartekwa’s staff, Wleh, as saying.

Wantu also recalled that even Senator Bartekwa himself has accused him before when he said to him in the presence of his office staff: “I am the father for all of you, but when your get ready, you people can write all kinds of negative things about me”.

The journalist said he had decided to let go the Senator’s allegation on the advice of friends, but for his office staff to have made a similar allegation with such fury, it has become troubling and concerning.