There is growing concern that former Liberian President, Charles Taylor might still be seriously involved in political happenings in Liberia despite being far away in the UK.
Taylor who is currently serving a 50-year jail term for war crimes in a UK Prison is believed to be using his base to influence next Tuesday’s election in his homeland.
In what is seen as an unlikely alliance, former world footballer of the year George Weah, who is running on the presidential ballot for the third time, has chosen Taylor's ex-wife, Jewel Howard Taylor, as his deputy.
Having historically been a staunch critic of Taylor and his National Patriotic Party (NPP), questions are being asked of the motives.
The union between Mr Weah's Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) and the NPP came just before a phone call from the former warlord was broadcast to a gathering of his supporters on his birthday in January this year.
The call was made from inside a high-security prison in Durham.
He is heard saying that "this revolution is his life", he advises his people not to betray the party: "Go back to base and everything will be fine."
Rodney Sieh, editor of Front Page Africa - the Liberian paper that published the call - said he was sure that Taylor knew that "he was speaking to an audience".
Taylor wanted his people to know that he was still relevant, according to Mr Sieh.
"He still wants his voice heard" in the Liberian political scene, he said.
'I'll be back'
Mrs Howard Taylor has made her allegiance to her ex-husband clear.
In an interview with local journalists outside a campaign rally, she said that the country needed to get back to the "agenda" outlined by Taylor when he was president.
But she denied that he was influencing the 2017 elections.
Speaking to the BBC after a friendly football game just outside the capital, Mr Weah admitted to taking a call from prison.
But he rejected the idea that strings were being pulled.
"Charles Taylor is not running the campaign for us," he said.
Defending his choice of running mate he said simply: "People love her, she was the mother of this nation.
"If Charles Taylor was campaigning for me, I think the world would be aware."
But the world is aware of the alleged interference and it is concerned.
Since news broke of the phone call, the US Congress passed a resolution that condemned any "external interference" in the poll and specifically any attempt by the convicted war criminal "to influence the elections from prison".
The EU mission in Liberia has also made it clear that "Charles Taylor is serving a 50 year jail sentence and he is not coming back to Liberia".
But if Taylor himself was to be believed when he left Liberia to be exiled in Nigeria on 11 August 2003, his intentions were clear.
"God willing, I will be back," he said at a resignation ceremony in the capital.
