The head of the caretakers team of the 14 Omega General Market in Paynesville City, Madam TewahBondo and the President of the Liberia Vegetable Sellers Association (LVSA) Sumo Mulbah are at each other’s throats, trading accusation and counter-accusation for LRD100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Liberian Dollars).
Addressing reporters at the 14 Omega General Market on 19 October, 2020 Madam Bondo, aunt of the chief butler to President George Weah, Miss FindaBondo, accused Mr.Mulbah of signing for LRD100,0000 (One Hundred Thousand Liberian Dollars) from Finda’s office, which he’s yet to account for. This paper has not independently verified this information with Miss FindaBondo.
According to her, Mulbah and others selected by the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) to manage the affairs of the Omega General Market, pending full completion of the project, decided to distance from her and others on the caretaker team.
She explained that her trouble with Mulbah and others started when she decided to collect money from street sellers at the Paynesville Redlight general market based on agreement reached amongst members of the caretaker team to facilitate work at the 14 Omega market.
Madam Bondo said funds collected were used to purchase fuel oil for the yellow machine working at the market to pave road leading there, brush back of the market where vehicles would offload goods and construct an 18-room latrines.
According to her, she did not do anything wrong, noting that those accusing her are aware of everything that she did. She added that if she misappropriated money from the market, her accusers are not the ones to query her but the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) that selected her as caretaker head for the Omega market.
Madam Bondo then threatened to drag Mulbah and others to court for alleged character assassination, if they fail to prove allegations being made against her.
But in reaction, the President of the Liberia Vegetables Sellers Association (LVSA) Sumo Mulbah alleged that Madam Bondo was sent to the office of the Mayor of the Paynesville City Corporation with a communication from the Chairman of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) MulbahMorlu for employment with the PCC from where the PCC seconded her to work along with the leadership of the LVSA at the Omega market site to enhance operation of the project.
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He claimed that while working together, Madam Bondo secretly began to collect money from street sellers at the Paynesville market for selling spots, issuing them receipts without consent of other members on the caretaker team.
According to Mulbah, the caretaker team did not had any money, so Madam Bondo requested him (Mulbah) to lend her some money from the account of the Liberia Vegetable Sellers Association in the tune of US$3,000.00 (Three Thousand United States dollars) but she has allegedly refused to restitute the amount.
He said the money in question was taken from the Liberia Vegetables Sellers Association’s coffer over a three-year period and she promised to have refunded the money, which is yet to happen.
He said they advised Madam TewahBondo at the time to stop collecting money from street sellers at the Paynesville Redlight market on grounds that they were not authorized by the Mayor of the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC) to collect money from marketers, but she ignored the advice.
He said most of the street sellers, who Madam Bondo collected money from, alarmed that they wanted selling spots already paid for to enable them transfer to the 14 Omega General Market after confronting some members of the caretaker team on the matter.
“When we approached Madam Bondo about the marketers’ claim of collecting money from them for market-spots, she told us that we wanted to undermine her leadership and so we chose to alert the Mayor of Paynesville City on the matter and about our subsequent withdrawal from the caretaker team”, he said.
Mulbah warned Madam Bondo to concentrate more on how she will refund the money borrowed from the Liberia Vegetable Sellers Association rather than looking for people to use as scape -goat for her selfish motive.
By Emmanuel Mondaye–Editing by Jonathan Browne
