17/09/2025
Senator Nuquay is a great leader of Margibi County.
OFFICE OF SENATOR JAMES EMMANUEL NUQUAY
Capitol Hill, Monrovia, Liberia
Press Release
September 17, 2025
Setting the Record Straight: Exposing the Lies and Criminality Behind Musa Bility’s Attacks
The Office of Senator James Emmanuel Nuquay categorically rejects the barrage of lies and baseless accusations recently made by Representative Musa Bility. His repeated appearances on radio and television, spewing misinformation about Senator Nuquay, are nothing more than desperate attempts to distract from his own criminal profiteering in Liberia’s petroleum sector—a criminal racket that has now been exposed, dismantled, and is collapsing before his very eyes.
The Source of Bility’s Anger
The truth is simple: Senator Nuquay authored a formal communication to the Liberian Senate dated June 30, 2025, drawing attention to the troubling, unjust, and exploitative petroleum pricing formula imposed on the Liberian people. This letter highlighted fraudulent charges—including excessive storage fees, financing costs, and phantom “evaporation charges”—that were unjustly inflating fuel prices and bleeding the Liberian economy.
The Senate, acting on Senator Nuquay’s letter, mandated its Joint Committee on Ways, Means, Finance & Budget; Judiciary; Public Corporations; Commerce; Trade & Industry; and Hydrocarbon to conduct a full investigation. That investigation uncovered shocking evidence:
Storage Charges: Liberians were being charged $0.35 per gallon, the highest in the subregion, while Sierra Leoneans pay $0.013 and Nigerians as little as $0.0064.
Evaporation Fraud: Over 1,083,085 gallons of petroleum products were being charged as “evaporated” in just six months—without independent verification or audit. Infact, evaporation charged of $0.03 for PMS and $0,02 for AGO charged per gallon at the filling station only applied to importers and storage tank owners and not to retaillers.
Unjust Financing Costs: Importers were passing their own financing costs onto Liberians, unlike any other essential commodity where importers bear their own risks.
Regulatory Fees Misappropriated: For years, LPRC’s regulatory fees—meant to fund oversight and regulation—were unlawfully embedded into storage charges and diverted to private storage tank owners. These private operators do not and cannot provide regulatory services; that responsibility lies solely with the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company. Yet, under this corrupt scheme, Liberians were forced to pay “regulatory fees” to businessmen whose only role was storing petroleum. This racket meant that ordinary Liberians, already struggling with high fuel prices, were effectively financing private profiteers under the false cover of regulation. The Senate investigation, triggered by Senator Nuquay’s communication, exposed this sham for what it was: a deliberate and systematic theft from the Liberian people.
These findings confirmed what Senator Nuquay argued: unfair storage charge, private storage tanks owners colleting regulatory fees incorporated into storage charge, excessive and unfair evaporation charges that only benefited importers and storage tank owners at the exclusion of retailers, and unfair financing fees.
Senate and Government Action
Following Senator James Emmanuel Nuquay’s bold exposure of the petroleum sector scandal and the subsequent Senate investigation, the Liberian government, through the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC), took decisive corrective action. Petroleum prices were reduced, storage charges were restructured to separate legitimate regulatory fees from bulk storage costs, and most importantly, eleven cents ($0.11) per gallon was redirected to county roads construction and maintenance. This reform is projected to generate $16.5 million annually—ensuring that each of Liberia’s fifteen counties will receive over $1 million every year for the rehabilitation and maintenance of their roads.
This is not just policy; it is transformation. For the first time in Liberia’s history, millions previously lost to fraud and profiteering are being directly invested into local development where it matters most—roads that connect farmers to markets, children to schools, patients to hospitals, and communities to opportunities.
And here lies the root of Musa Bility’s anger. He shamelessly claims that the $16.5 million now earmarked for county roads is “his money” and should not go to the people. Imagine the arrogance of a man who sees national reform and people’s development as a personal loss.
The truth is this: Bility’s criminal empire—built on fraudulent storage fees, fake evaporation charges, and exploitative financing costs—has been brought into the sunlight. It is collapsing under the weight of facts, transparency, and reform.
His attacks on Senator Nuquay are not grounded in evidence, principle, or patriotism. They are the bitter outbursts of a profiteer whose golden goose has been taken away. Liberians now know why Musa Bility is shouting: because his days of plundering the people at the pump are over, and Senator Nuquay’s fight for fairness has prevailed.
To deceive the public, Bility has alleged that Senator Nuquay stole “millions” while chairing the Public Accounts Committee from 2018 to 2023, a BLATANT LIE.
Here are the facts:
Senator Nuquay was not even in the Senate in 2018. He was elected in 2020 and seated in 2021. This is not only a blatant lie but also an exhibition of Musa Bility’s ignorance. From 2018 to 2020, Senator Nuquay was Director General of Liberia Civil Aviation Authority (LCAA) and was NOT a member of the Liberian Senate. He was elected to the Senate in 2020 and took his seat in 2021. How can a man who was not a senator in 2018 be accused of looting funds in a position he never occupied at the time? The stupidity of this lie only exposes the desperation of its author.
The Public Accounts Committee is a joint committee of both Houses, managed by a professional Secretariat whose operations are funded through appropriations in the National Budget—not by the Chairperson. The simple fact that Bility does not even know the basic facts of how the Public Accounts Committee functions is mind boggling. Let’s break it down: The PAC that Senator Nuquay chaired is not a Senate committee alone; it is a joint committee of both Houses of the Legislature. More importantly, it has a professional Secretariat that manages its affairs. The Secretariat is what receives appropriations as provided for in the National Budget—At no time do funds flow through the Chairperson of the committee. To suggest otherwise is either an act of monumental ignorance or deliberate deception. In either case, it shows that Musa Bility has no respect for truth or for the intelligence of the Liberian people.
This is willful lying, meant to deceive the public and cover his tracks now that the government has grown the courage and the willpower to clip his wings and shut down the pipelines of theft he has enjoyed for years.
This is what happens when a drowning man tries to grab onto anything to survive. Senator Nuquay exposed the theft and wholesale looting in the petroleum sector—fraudulent storage fees, bogus financing charges, and phantom evaporation costs—that have lined the pockets of people like Musa Bility at the expense of every struggling Liberian. Now, with his empire exposed and his gravy train drying up, Bility runs from studio to studio, trading in lies, propaganda, and character assassination. But the Liberian people are not fools. They know the difference between a leader who serves them and a profiteer who exploits them.
These are undeniable facts. Musa Bility’s lies collapse under the weight of basic truth and now a criminal is in free fall.
Now that his fraudulent schemes have been exposed, Musa Bility lashes out at Senator Nuquay and even drags the Vice President of Liberia into his conspiracy theories. These are the wild rants of a drowning man. The Liberian people must understand: his attacks are not about governance—they are about self-preservation.
Senator Nuquay remains focused on his duty: protecting the Liberian people from exploitation, lowering fuel costs, and ensuring accountability in national governance. The lies of Musa Bility cannot distract from this mission.
The Office of Senator Nuquay assures the Liberian people that no amount of propaganda will erase the truth: the days of fraudulent petroleum charges, theft of regulatory fees at the expense of LPRC and Liberians are numbered, and Musa Bility’s criminal empire is falling apart.
Signed:
Office of Senator James Emmanuel Nuquay
