Monrovia – Before the Community Court of Justice of the Community of West African States (ECOWAS Court) is a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Mandingos in Ganta, Nimba County against the Government of Liberia over the alleged seizure of their land.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
The case was brought before the ECOWAS Court by the Ganta Support Group and Sekou A. Sanoe who claimed to be suing on behalf of 823 displaced and victimized families family heads of the Mandingo people.
The suit emanates from a long-standing land dispute, which was offset by the illegal occupation of land and properties of residents of Ganta (mainly the Mandingo people) who fled the country during the war, only to return and find their properties occupied.
According to the suit, “The Mandingo people have been the owners of landed properties in Nimba County in Liberia from time immemorial.”
In 2006, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf set up an ad-hoc committee headed by former Internal Affairs Minister, Ambulai B. Johnson, to resolve the Nimba land disputes that had the potential to plunge Liberia into crisis. Another commission was constituted comprising only Nimbaians and presided over by Mr. Musa H. Hassan A. Billity.
The two commissions established that that to achieve peace and foster reconciliation, there was the need to compensate all the squatters to enable them to vacate the properties.
“With particular reference to Ganta and its environs, two hundred and fifty (250) cases out of the two hundred and eight (280) land dispute cases were resolved and the illegal occupants were fully compensated by the defendant,” the complaint stated.
The complainants, however, lamented that since the payments were done, the ‘illegal squatters’ are yet to turn over their properties of the Mandingo people.
The suit further alleged that over 75 heads of families of the Mandingo citizens of Ganta and its environs in Nimba were brutally beaten, tortured and jailed in 2016 by state security forces during a peaceful rally in demand of their ancestral land.
According to the aggrieved party, the government of Liberia allocated the unoccupied portion of the embattled land to former government officials, including former President Sirleaf.
For his part, Sekou Sanoe, a co-complainant, who claimed to be the administrator of his late grandfather, Nyama Sanoe’s estate said, his late brother, Varfin Sanoe, was arrested, beaten, tortured and taken to Yekepa and killed because he challenged the illegal occupancy of his late grandfather’s property in Ganta.
According to him, said the property has been forcefully encroached on and developed by the illegal occupants who have received compensation for the property from the government but have refused to leave.
To this end, the Mandingos in Ganta claimed their rights have been grossly violated by the government has, therefore, called on the EOCWAS Court to ask the government of Liberia to pay the sum of US$500,000,00.00 as compensation for the violations of their human rights to life, dignity, housing, property, development and peace.
They also called for an order of mandatory injunction compelling the Liberian government to restore their ancient homes and landed properties.
The complainants requested the Court to place a perpetual injunction restraining the government and her agents, privies and servants from further attacking the Mandingos in Nimba.
They further prayed the Court to declare the violent attack of the peaceful rally held in Nimba in November 2016 unlawful as it violates their human rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.