A co-defendant in the US$700,000 damage suit against Ecobank Liberia, Alex Williams, challenges the allegation that he was involved in leaking to the public account of the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services or LISGIS.
By Lincoln G. Peters
Monrovia, Liberia, October 10, 2024—One of the co-defendants in the Ecobank Liberia (Limited) US$700K libel case, Alex Williams, denies allegations that he instigated the leak of the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) account details to the public.
Ecobank Liberia Limited is also a co-defendant in the damage suit initiated by former LISGIS deputy director Wilmot Smith.
Defendant Williams, also former deputy director general for Statistics and Data Processing at LISGIS, responded to the damages lawsuit before the Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice by arguing that he is neither an employee nor a spokesman for Spoon TV, a digital platform.
He denied ever assisting the Spoon Network in any slanderous and libelous campaign that defamed and damaged Smith’s reputation as alleged.
Co-defendant Ecobank, in its investigative findings filed before the court, alleges that Williams, former deputy director general for Statistics and Data Processing, who LISGIS never authorized, and a non-signatory to the Institute’s account, misled its Reconciliation Officer assigned to the Card Operation Department, Yussif Kromah, to leak the account, and he (Williams) and Spoon TV used the leaked information to incriminate Plaintiff Wilmot Smith, former Deputy Director for Information and Coordination at LISGIS, for illegally withdrawing US$1.7million from the entity’s account with the bank.
Smith filed the suit against Williams, Ecobank, and Martin Kollie, alleging that they defamed him in a series of media publications sent to Spoon TV while he was deputy director general.
Smith is seeking US$500,000 and US$200,000, in general, as well as punitive damages from the three defendants.
However, according to Defendant Williams, the account was opened to facilitate the deposit of funding for the 2008 National Population and Housing Census.
“As deputy director general for Statistics and Data Processing, I was among the four signatories to this account at the Ecobank,” Williams reveals in his response.
The account was also signed by Mr. Francis Wreh, director general; Mariah Quaye Gilayeneh, administration; and Dominic Paye, Comptroller.
He says that by virtue of his position in accordance with Section 50 (a) 2 of the LISGIS Act, he was the Principal Deputy to the Director General.
According to Williams, he is not a spokesman for Ecobank and Kromah and denies any link to them, as alleged in the Plaintiff’s complaint.
He narrates that on March 1, 2022, while serving in the post, he received a formal letter from the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) inviting him to assist or testify in an ongoing investigation of acts of financial impropriety and corruption at LISGIS.
He continues that as a law-abiding citizen and Principal Deputy to the director general, he did comply with the investigation and provide his side of the story, accompanied by pieces of evidence, regarding the issue in support of his story, which principally included documents at his disposal, bank statements from the National Population and Housing Census’ accounts domiciled at Ecobank Liberia Limited, and as a signatory to said account.
He claims that upon the conclusion of the investigation, the LACC released its findings on LISGIS and other government entities to the public on June 17, 2022, in an elaborate press conference covered by many media outlets, including Spoon TV, attended by foreign dignitaries from the Swedish and United States Embassies, among others.
“Co-defendant is neither an employee nor spokesman for Spoon TV nor denied ever assisting Spoon TV in any slanderous and libelous campaign that defamed and damaged his reputation as alleged,” Williams counters.
He also argues that Smith has no legal standing to allege that he (Williams) criminally took LSIGIS’s bank statement from Ecobank because he was never the director general of LIGIS or its legal representative.
“Only LISGIS has the legal right to sue or claim its bank statement was criminally extracted or collected from Ecobank, not the plaintiff’s personal bank statement.”
The bank investigation alleges that Williams manipulated the account details for his personal and selfish aims, except for the bank-client privilege.
They argue, for instance, that Williams shared the account statement with the Spoon TV social media platform, one of the widely listened-to talk show programs outside the country.
The investigation says both Williams and Spoon TV used the leaked information to incriminate Plaintiff Wilmot Smith for illegally withdrawing US$ 1.7 million from LISGIS’s account with the bank.
The investigation says Williams participated in Spoon TV’s live broadcast, during which LISGIS’s account details were discussed.
“Williams being disgruntled, and having access to such information, he was behind the Spoon’s discussion of the leaked account,” it notes. Editing by Jonathan Browne
