Ecobank and other defendants are in court because a former government official is seeking compensation of US$700,000 for damages incurred.
By Lincoln G. Peters
Monrovia, January 27, 2025: Chamber Justice Yarmie Quiqui Gbeisay has rejected Ecobank Liberia's last-minute bid to halt a US$700,000 libel case.
The bank had urged Justice Gbeisay to review and if possible, overturn Civil Law Court Judge Scheaplor Dunbar's rejection of its (bank's) request against granting Alex Williams, a co-defendant, separate trial.
Williams is a former Deputy Director General for Statistics and Data Processing at the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS).
In a one-page decision dated Friday, January 24, Justice Gbeisay gave instructions to Judge Dunbar to resume jurisdiction over the case.
"By directive of His Honor Yarmie Quiqui Gbeisay, Associate Justice presiding in Chamber, you are hereby mandated to resume jurisdiction and proceed in keeping with the law, as the justice has declined to issue the writ prayed for," a communication from the Chamber Justice said.
Williams, Yussif Kromah, an employee of Ecobank, and the bank are being tried for allegedly colluding to share LISGIS's account statements with the Spoon TV and social media platform.
The complaint alleged that Spoon TV and social media then misrepresented the information publicly, implicating Wilmot Smith, former LISGIS Deputy Director General for Information Coordination.
Smith was accused of an unauthorized withdrawal of funds intended for census enumerators in 2022.
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Smith had claimed wrongful dismissal by former President George Manneh Weah due to the misinformation spread by the defendants through social media channels.
Before the opening of the Census account, Smith was one of the signatories to the LISGIS Account at Ecobank.
He is now seeking financial compensation of US$500,000 in general damages and US$200,000 in punitive damages, for the damages incurred.
But the bank argued that on Monday, January 20, when the case was called, Williams' lawyers requested for separate trial.
The bank said Williams' lawyer noted that he was not accorded due process.
After Judge Dunbar granted Williams a separate trial, the bank argued that on January 15, 2025, at the call of the case, the lawyers representing co-defendant Alex Williams appeared in court.
The lawyers allegedly said he was not aware of the case because he was not served any document for the hearing.
