MONROVIA – The Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) has refused to reinstate and pay a senior staff of the agency several months of salary and benefits despite a court order for it to do so. Dr. Nykoi Jomah is a victim of misuse of power and unfair labor practice, and he has received death threats.
Paulette Findley, the officer-in-charge of CARI, has blocked Jomah, the director of livestock, aquaculture and inland fishery from getting all of more than US$15,000 and L$500,000 he is owed or 11 months of salary and benefits. CARI accuses him of theft of property, misapplication of entrusted property, forgery and misuse of public money, a charge he vehemently denies.
In a lawsuit it filed in September last year, CARI alleged that Jomah forged the signatures of David P. Tokpah, agency’s head of natural resource management and Esen Joe Amara, its comptroller, and withdrew L$10,000 from the institution’s finance office for animal feed and purchase of building materials but later diverted the money to repair his vehicle.
A month or so later, CARI wrote the United Bank of Africa (UBA) a letter seen by FrontPage Africa, asking the bank not to pay Jomah until further notice. The letter, addressed to the bank’s branch manager Lionel Massaquoi, was signed by Financial Comptroller Enson Joe Amara and approved by Findley.
But the charges were dismissed last month by the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Bong County over the failure of the prosecution to proceed with the case. “The defendant is therefore discharged by court from further answering to the charges levied against the defendant by the state on the premise that the matter is dismissed without prejudice to the state,” Judge A. Blamo Dixon stated in the June 12, ruling.
Despite the court’s ruling, Jomah has not been reinstated. He, however, received two of the 11-month arrears owed him on July 9, 2020—US$1,230.40. “Thanks to all well-meaning Liberians as well as international partners through their intervention…” Jomah wrote in a Facebook post. “Kindly, Madam Paulette Findley [pay me] the remaining nine months (October 2019 to June 2020).”
That is in violation of the Decent Work Act of 2015, a landmark law, which was hailed after its passage to protect employees and employers and bring sanity to the workplace nationwide. Section 14 of the act states, “If the Ministry or a court determines in a hearing or proceedings under this Act that an employee’s employment was not terminated in accordance with this Act, the Ministry or the court, as the case may be, may order: i) that the employee be reinstated in their employment; ii) that the employer pay to the employee an amount of compensation; or iii) both reinstatement and compensation.”
Jomah has a Doctor of Philosophy in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, and has been working at CARI since 2012. He is also a Fellow of the McArthur Foundation based in Chicago, Illinois.
Since October 2019, he has not had access to his workplace. He claims he was forcefully chased out by a group of ex-militia fighters armed with knives and clubs, acting on the order of Findley.
Findley, responding to FrontPage Africa’s queries, said CARI did not push ahead with the case against Jomah it no longer had reason to do so. “He was dismissed and we didn’t pursue the case because he was already out of the system. But tomorrow we will open the case and he will be indicted,” Findley said via mobile phone. She revealed CARI was management is filing a lawsuit against Jomah at the Bong County Magisterial Court.
But that would not be Jomah’s last lawsuit on the matter, as Findley again sued him at the Monrovia City Court on July 2 for criminal coercion, menacing harassment. The court, in the writ, orders all law enforcement officers in the country to arrest Jomah and turn him over for prosecution. He has gone into hiding, saying in a July 4 Facebook post “My action to remain indoors reflects threats to have me murdered and or take me to Mrs. Paulette E. Findley’s location, according to three unidentified men with weapons on July 2, 2020.” He said he would only go to court if escorted by personnel of the Independent National Human Rights Commission (INHRC), members of the diplomatic corps and justice advocates.
Long-running Feud
Jomah and Findley have been engulfed in a protracted dispute over administrative matters.
In September 2018, an investigation by then Director General Dr. Marcus Jones into looting at CARI found several people including, Findley, who was serving as an administrator.
She was accused of not following the legal procedure in the selling of several 40-foot containers and other materials given to CARI by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Some of the items were building and mechanical materials worth thousands of United States dollars. She was subsequently dismissed.
In the dismissal letter dated November 21, 2018, then Director of CARI, Dr. Marcus Jones wrote: “This is to inform you that your employment with Central Agricultural Research Institute is terminated with immediate effect and for persistent gross breach of duty, misconduct and act incompatible with the policy of the institution and that of the status of a senior administrative staff of the institute.”
However, Findley later resurfaced as officer-in-charge of the institution following the sacking of Dr. Jones by President Weah last year.
Sources told FrontPage Africa she has been going after those she blames for her dismissal.
Upon Findley’s return as officer-in-charge, she has failed to account for US$93,000 and L$3,000,000 received for staff’s Salary and benefits and US$70,000 for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) project, according to Jomah.
Findley frequently boasts of being a confidant of Nathaniel McGill, the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, and goes after employees who criticize her, Jomah said in a Facebook post. “She’s reliant on McGill and is using former combatants of the NPFL to target employees who expose criminal acts at the institution,” Jomah charged. “And she told us that it was Nathaniel McGill who sent her back to CARI and if anybody stands in her way, she will get them out.”
But Findley also denies that allegation. “Am I that stupid or childish to discuss that with Jomah? I am no child to go about bragging that I am connected to McGill,” she said. Minister McGill is the number three man in the country and I will be in connection with him and be stuck on this stupid a** job?”
McGill has not responded to any of FrontPage Africa’s queries for comment on the matter. His phone rang continuously with no answer. And we got no replies from text messages.
Leaked Audio Recording
In a leaked audio that has gone viral on social media, Findley and David Tokpah, the head of CARI’s natural resource department, celebrate Jomah’s removal.
“Haha, Haha, David Tokpah, you know what?” She can be heard starting the conversation with Tokpah. “My driver said ‘Oldma, people are saying since you removed Jomah from CARI, people really afraid of you. Soon they saw you coming, they started running to go on the field.’”
Tokpah, in his response, says he warned Jomah to be mindful with Findley because of her connections she has. “I warned Jomah, I warned him… I told him that the place ‘The old man (Findley) and I [have gone] you know people oo but you can’t fight that woman and win.’”
Findley and Tokpah also were heard planning to steal CARI’s generators. “You people should take the generator from the compound and you people should do it quick…,” Findley tells Tokpah in the recording. “We should give the GSA man one generator to keep him quiet.”
“What?! Who should give him one generator?” Tokpah contests Findley suggestion. “We should just find his US$ 200 bulks. Oldma, under this sun here, stealing da stealing. For the fact that he ate US$200 every one of us stole.”
In an open letter to McGill, Jomah called for the investigation of the alleged unauthorized sale of CARI’s property and misapplication of monies following Findley’s return.
She has withheld or probably expended without my consent as well as obliterate hindrances that have hindered my entry to residence and office at CARI,” Jomah wrote in the letter published by FPA on May 2, 2020.
‘Have a Miserable Night’
Before going into hiding, Jomah staged a sleep-in protest on Capitol Hill, opposite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that hosts the presidency. The vehicle in which he sleeps is covered with a number of placards, brandishing inscriptions such as “President Weah’s appointee Mrs. Paulette Findley of CARI is corrupt, ignores good governance and fails to accept reforms” and “America, EU and ECOWAS please act now. Do not wait until we result into lawlessness.”
Jomah chose the location to grab the attention of President Weah to address his plight, he said. However, he did not meet the President nor any official of the Liberian government.
Despite that, Jomah continued his protest. He took it to the United States embassy and submitted a petition to the US Ambassador Michael A. McCarthy, pleading for an asylum if he is not reinstated and paid by July 20. “I passionately request the United States government to grant my asylum to enable me and my family survive as free persons, free of threats, fear, molestation and denial of the right to coexist,” he said in the petition.
Jomah alleged Findley has threatened him.
“I will make your life miserable,” a woman’s voice he claims is Findley’s can be heard saying in an audio recording of a phone conversation call around the same time his salary was frozen. “You’ve done nothing yet. I will f*** with you and f*** with you your daughter. You don’t know me. I have money. You [don’t have] got sh**. I will make you crazy in this town,” she can be heard adding before a flurry of invectives. Jomah then wishing her goodnight and she replies, “You can have a miserable night; it is just starting.”
The saga is taking a toll on Jomah’s four children and wife and life has become unbearable, he told FrontPage Africa.
“I can’t really meet my needs fully. I have problems in paying my bills. Sometimes it gets so tough to even buy tissue for the house,” he lamented.
“Life is so difficult for me and my family. And what’s even more hurtful, when the woman sees me sometimes she taunts me, saying ‘I told you I will suffer you.’ My life is greatly affected. Though my relatives and friends give me handouts but not enough to sustain my family.”
He wrote on one placard, “America, my family and I have been denied to work and live in Liberia,” The bad succeed because the good fail to act. Please act.”
Jomah has sought the interventions of civil society groups, the Independent National Human Rights Commission (INHRC), religious organizations and the Peace Building Office but all have proved futile.
“The INHRC wishes to remind you that you have seven days to respond to these very grave allegations of human rights violations brought against you,” the Acting Chairperson of the commission Rev. Bartholomew Colley wrote to Findley back in April after she did not turn out for a meeting on the matter a month earlier. In the letter, the commission reminded her that it had quasi judicial power and could subpoena her. She has still not appeared.
Jomah vowed to continue to seeking any legal means to let justice prevail in order to serve as a deterrent for public officials who use their power and connection to trample on the rights of others.
“Our law says innocent until proven guilty but in my case it is guilty before proven innocent. And that is wrong. Others will say ‘Just forget it,’ but me, I will never.”