PHOTO: Mr. Belleh T. Quenah, Spokesperson
By Emmanuel Nakulah Mafelah, mafelahemmanuel29@gmail.com
GBARNGA, Liberia-Dozens of angry residents in the Vilanyea (VI) Community in Gbarnga, Bong County at the weekend set roadblock in demand of reclaiming over nine hundred acres of tribal land.
The land,which is situated in the Sangai Farm area in Gbarnga, is currently being occupied by family members of late Liberian President William Richard Torbert and managed by relative members headed by Lawrence Kollie and Alfred Spencer among others.
Speaking to this Reporter on Friday, December 16, 2022 during the angry residents’ roadblock, the spokesman Belleh T. Quenah narrated that they have written formal complaints to several county stakeholders offices about investigation into the matter but to no avail.
According to Mr. Quenah, the land in question is more than nine hundred acres, adding that the property is owned by the Vilanyea residents but has since been claimed by the Torbert family thereby disallowing the citizens access to the land.
He maintained that if nothing is done by government through the county authorities, they as traditional owners of the property will continue to protest in demand of their inheritance.
For his part, the General Town Chief of Jorquelleh District # 3, Joseph B. Mulbah giving some historical insight of the property narrated, that in 1952 it was Stephen A. Tolbert that asked the citizens for the land, in order to make farm on it.
But later when he passed, his brother, former President William Richard Tolbert request for the tribal certificate from the citizens and later processed it in his family’s name.
Other sources including senior elders of the Vilanyea Community however, narrated that it was instead William Richard Torbert who asked for the land in order to make garden on it. But when he later died, his junior brother William A. Tolbert persuasively requested the citizens to give him the tribal certificate for onward processing but on the contrary processed the document in his family’s name.
The General Town Chief, youth and women representatives adding their voices to the debate by saying that, if the government through the local authorities does not come to arrest the prevailing situation, they will go on the rampage in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the Liberia National Police LNP Bong County chapter headed by Col. Fasu V. Sheriff arrived Friday at the protest scene and instructed the angry residents to forward their case to the Gbarnga Central Police Station for redress rather than taking the law into their own hands.
The timely intervention by the Police Friday enabled the case to proceed at the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County and the office of the county attorney Mr. Jonathan N. Flomo was able to launch timely investigation into the citizens’ concern.