EXTRA: Snakes force Liberian president out of office

President George Weah of Liberia has been forced to work from his private residence after snakes were found in his office.

Smith Toby, the country’s deputy press secretary, told BBC on Wednesday that two black snakes were found in the foreign affairs ministry building that contains his office.

The former international soccer star is expected to be back in office on Monday after he was advised to stay away from the building until it is fumigated.

“It’s just to make sure that crawling and creeping things get fumigated from the building,” Toby said.

“The ministry of foreign affairs hosts the office of the president, so it did an internal memo asking the staff to stay home while they do the fumigation.”

The deputy press secretary said the “snakes were never killed,” because “there was a little hole somewhere [through which] they made their way back.”

Toby added that the ministry of foreign affairs commenced fumigation on Friday to take care of “crawling and creeping things.”

“That building’s been there for years now, and [because of] the drainage system, the possibility of having things like snakes crawling in that building was high,” he said.

“The president is definitely returning to his office on Monday after the fumigation whether or not the snakes are found and killed.”

Two years ago, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, announced that Nigeria’s seat of power had been invaded by rodents.

This forced President Muhammadu Buhari to work from rodents-free office within his residence.

“Following the three months period of disuse, rodents have caused a lot of damage to the furniture and the air conditioning units,” Shehu had said in August 2017 when Buhari just returned from a medical vacation in the UK.

Shehu had said the maintenance company had been asked to speed up its pace of work.

Despite the renovation, Buhari had to wait for 11 weeks before he could resume work in his office.