LAND & MINES SURVEYOR INDICTED FOR FORGE: Wilmot James And Four Other Indicted for Falsifying Land Deed
Welemongia Ciapha, II., welemongia.ciapha@frontpageafricaonline.com
Monrovia--
Back dating land deed by people either working in Government ministries and agencies, or criminal-minded individuals has been one of the major factors that has resulted into the deaths and injuries of many persons in post-war Liberia.
One of such disputes led to the gruesome murder of at least 21 youths, when Senator Roland C. Kaine of Margibi County and Charles Bennie’s loyalists clashed over a disputed tribal land, situated between Timor, a border town between Margibi and Grand Bassa Counties in 2007.
Although, of the 16 suspects charged with the felonious crime of murder, Senator Kaine was one of those amongst the eight persons acquitted by a 12-member empanelled jury, convicting six of the perpetrators to life imprisonment at the Monrovia Central Prison Compound.
Government registered surveyor, Wilmot James, a national surveyor assigned at the Ministry of Land, Mines and Energy, along with four others have been indicted for falsifying a land deed over the years allegedly belonging to one Patricia Fahnbulleh.
A lengthy indictment, copy of which is in the possession of FrontPage Africa revealed that the grand jurors for Montserrado County, upon their oath, read “do hereby find more probably than not that Wilmot James, Rebecca Francis, Solomon Francis, Edmond Francis and Thompson D. F. Butler committed the crime of forgery, a felony of the third degree.”
Count-one of the indictment, stated that on June 4, 2010, the within named defendants were arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in connection with an alleged forgery of a land deed by the accused, which is said to be the property of one Rebecca Francis, who now resides in the United States of America (USA).
During the investigation, according to the indictment, one of the defendants, Thompson D. F. Butler admitted that he does not know how his name appeared on the deed that bears the name of J. D. Francis as the issuer of the deed.
The indictment established that all the defendants failed to tell the investigators as to who probated the deed that was prepared by surveyor, Wilmot James of the Ministry of Land, Mines and Energy.
In furtherance of the probe of the NBI, it is stated that a communication was sent to the National Center for Documentation and Records Agency (CNDRA), which revealed and confirmed that the defendants criminally, purposely, knowingly, willfully, perpetrated the crime of forgery, as the forged has no volume and number page in the registry at the CNDRA.
The case was placed on the docket after the lawyers representing the plaintiff filed a motion for the advancement of the case.
The motion yet to be argued in its substance, prayed the court to have the case on the trial docket for reason that its material witnesses are likely to travel out of the bailiwick of the country.
In that event, counsel for the plaintiff submitted that if the witnesses travel, while the case is still pending before the court, yet undermined, the movants might be deprived of the chance to proof its case beyond all reasonable that the Respondents did commit the crime of forgery.
It can be recalled that in 2006, Moses Garway, a resident of Duport Road Community in Paynesville was mobbed to death, when a group of ‘thugs’ attacked him at a construction site within the same vicinity.
Monrovia--
Back dating land deed by people either working in Government ministries and agencies, or criminal-minded individuals has been one of the major factors that has resulted into the deaths and injuries of many persons in post-war Liberia.
One of such disputes led to the gruesome murder of at least 21 youths, when Senator Roland C. Kaine of Margibi County and Charles Bennie’s loyalists clashed over a disputed tribal land, situated between Timor, a border town between Margibi and Grand Bassa Counties in 2007.
Although, of the 16 suspects charged with the felonious crime of murder, Senator Kaine was one of those amongst the eight persons acquitted by a 12-member empanelled jury, convicting six of the perpetrators to life imprisonment at the Monrovia Central Prison Compound.
Government registered surveyor, Wilmot James, a national surveyor assigned at the Ministry of Land, Mines and Energy, along with four others have been indicted for falsifying a land deed over the years allegedly belonging to one Patricia Fahnbulleh.
A lengthy indictment, copy of which is in the possession of FrontPage Africa revealed that the grand jurors for Montserrado County, upon their oath, read “do hereby find more probably than not that Wilmot James, Rebecca Francis, Solomon Francis, Edmond Francis and Thompson D. F. Butler committed the crime of forgery, a felony of the third degree.”
Count-one of the indictment, stated that on June 4, 2010, the within named defendants were arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in connection with an alleged forgery of a land deed by the accused, which is said to be the property of one Rebecca Francis, who now resides in the United States of America (USA).
During the investigation, according to the indictment, one of the defendants, Thompson D. F. Butler admitted that he does not know how his name appeared on the deed that bears the name of J. D. Francis as the issuer of the deed.
The indictment established that all the defendants failed to tell the investigators as to who probated the deed that was prepared by surveyor, Wilmot James of the Ministry of Land, Mines and Energy.
In furtherance of the probe of the NBI, it is stated that a communication was sent to the National Center for Documentation and Records Agency (CNDRA), which revealed and confirmed that the defendants criminally, purposely, knowingly, willfully, perpetrated the crime of forgery, as the forged has no volume and number page in the registry at the CNDRA.
The case was placed on the docket after the lawyers representing the plaintiff filed a motion for the advancement of the case.
The motion yet to be argued in its substance, prayed the court to have the case on the trial docket for reason that its material witnesses are likely to travel out of the bailiwick of the country.
In that event, counsel for the plaintiff submitted that if the witnesses travel, while the case is still pending before the court, yet undermined, the movants might be deprived of the chance to proof its case beyond all reasonable that the Respondents did commit the crime of forgery.
It can be recalled that in 2006, Moses Garway, a resident of Duport Road Community in Paynesville was mobbed to death, when a group of ‘thugs’ attacked him at a construction site within the same vicinity.
Labels: stories
posted by Frontpage Africa Online at
07:17
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