Did he, or did he not? The troubling story of VP Jeremiah Kpan Koung.

Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

‘Pictures are worth a thousand words,’ we have been told.

Except that this particular picture did not come with a valid story that tells the Liberian people what actually happened at the airport in Brussels on that day.

So far, the Liberian people are in the dark.

And the online pictures they have been exposed to are AI-generated, as fragments of stories from the vice president’s political foes and die-hard supporters continue to make the rounds in this 24-hour news cycle.

This is happening at a time when the Boakai administration is under the microscope for a high-profile drug trafficking and money laundering trial of former Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor that got the country on edge.

Strangely enough, there have even been whispers about Vice President Koung’s alleged involvement in the drug trafficking storyline that just wouldn’t go away.

So why do suspicious things that will draw the attention of people, especially your political enemies, who will not hesitate to tie you to whatever negative act that will destroy your image and your 2029 presidential aspirations?

Whatever the story is, the damage to Vice President Koung’s public image has been done as these AI-generated images continue to trend in such an aggressive way that it will be difficult for any public relations team to easily repair the ongoing damage to his name.

I may be wrong, and Vice President Koung perhaps could get off the hook because it is Liberia, a country that forgives and gives asylum to ex-warlords and criminals who run for public office and get a new life as office holders, liberators, and philanthropists.

But how did this happen to the vice president?

And why did the vice president expose himself to such abuse and public humiliation?

The vice president’s team and he denied that the story was a lie, and said it never happened the way it was told.

Whatever it is, Mr. Koung has an explanation to give to the Liberian people.

Did he breach any diplomatic protocol to be searched as if he were a wanted criminal on the run who was caught on foreign soil trying to escape from justice?

Mr. Koung’s story that he used the regular (everyday) passenger gate to pick up duty-free items for his daughter as uneventful is difficult to pass the smell test.

Why didn’t this vice president ask an aide from the Liberian embassy to get those items for him at the duty-free stores?

Why didn’t Vice President Koung discuss this family errand with the ambassador to go through the proper diplomatic channel to purchase those items for his daughter?

Another weird story told by this vice president that resembles a corrupt quid pro quo deal is the ridiculous story about the private jet donated free of charge by his friend that flew him out of the country in 2024.

What kind of friend will donate a private executive jet for free to fly an individual out of the country without wanting something in return?

For the sake of accountability and transparency, can Vice President Jeremiah Koung come clean and honestly tell the Liberian people the friend’s name, and what was given to the friend in return for such a generous offer for a free private flight out of the country?

This is the kind of in-your-face naked corruption and crookedness that got the Liberian nation bleeding today from poverty and underdevelopment.

There’s more to Jeremiah Koung’s story.

The vice president needs to come clean.

Dorbioh