Due to failure to pay bill in a land dispute case, Maryland County Fiscal Affairs Superintendent, Anthony Wloflo Bedell, has been arrested and incacerated at the Harper Central Prison in the county.
Superintendent Bedell was arrested on Monday afternoon, March 8, 2021 while at his Gbolobo road residence in Pleebo Sodoken district.
According to Police charge sheet, the assistant superintendent was charged for contempt due to his failure to comply with bail cost after the Supreme Court of Liberia had ruled against him in September, 2020 in a land dispute case.
The dispute is between him and Judy Howe, former Labour Commissioner of Maryland County.
Assiatnt Superintendent Bedell was served the writ of arrest on March 8, 2021 by the clerk of the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court in the County, and mandated to pay Five Thousand, Ninety-five ($5,95.00) United States Dollars plus One Hundred Fifty-seven Thousand, Three Hundred-Fifty ($157,350.00) Liberian Dollars to Mr. Judy Howe as bail of cost for expenses Mr. Howe has been incurring since 2008 up to the final verdict of the case in 2020.
Speaking in an interview via mobile phone from Barclayvill City, Mr. Howe explained his late aunt Wledy Howe and the late Alphonso Sunday Bedell, father of Assistant Superintendent Bedell were loving and that is how the superintendent gained access to the land.
Mr. Howe disclosed that the Howe Family requested the Bedell Family to turn over their land after the death of caretaker Wledy Howe, former girlfriend of the late Alphonso Sunday Bedell.
He said after they have made such request, Superintendent Wloflo Bedell wrote on behalf of his family on April 2, 2002 to turn over the land but didn’t do so until the Liberian Civil War.
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Her said few years after the war ended, the caretaker of the Howe Family decided to turn it over to the other relatives when the Fiscal Affairs Superintendent went back to them and claim that the land belongs to him because his late father was loving to Wledy Howe, who was then caretaker for the premises.
He laented that the situation of who owns the land started in 2008 and ended in 2013 when the court asked Assistanrt Superintendent Bedell to turn over the property, but he alledgedly refused and took an applead to the Supreme Court of Liberia, but the Highest Court also ruled against him ( Anthony Wloflo Bedell) in September 2020, asking him to pay the said amount to the Howe Family.
He added that based on the mandate, he wrote a commitment notice to pay the money but since then he has refused to do so.
Mr. Howe disclosed that before the court proceeding, Associate Justice Jamesetta Wolokollie intervened, and asked the matter to be withdrawn from court and settled at home, but this was not heeded.
By Patrick N. Mensah, Maryland County–Editing by Jonathan Browne
