Ecobank Liberia Limited, one of Liberia’s commercial banks, is being dragged to court for alleged defamation.
By Lincoln G. Peters
Monrovia, October 3, 2024/A long-awaited US$700,000 damages lawsuit against Ecobank Liberia Limited commences today, Thursday, October 3, 2024, at the Civil Law Court in Montserrado County.
Mr. Wilmot Smith, former deputy director for information and coordination at the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), filed the case against the bank.
Complainant Smith claimed that former President George Weah dismissed him after the bank allegedly leaked information about LISGIS’s account numbers 6101350441 and 6100064362 to Mr. Alex Williams, the former deputy director for statistics.
The complainant says Williams, a panelist on Spoon Talk, a live online broadcast, used the leaked information to accuse him of withdrawing money from the said accounts and diverting it to his personal benefits.
Smith demands US$500,000 in general damages and US$200,000 as punitive damages.
However, Ecobank, in counter-argument, says it has nothing to do with accusations raised by Smith.
The Co-defendant further argues that after the accusations, the bank immediately investigated Yussif S. Kromah, the bank’s Reconciliation Officer assigned to the Card Operation Department.
The bank continues that the investigative findings accused Kromah of leaking information about LISGIS’s account details to Mr. Alex Williams, deputy director for Statistics at LISGIS, who was never authorized and was a non-signatory to the account.
Ecobank explains that the investigation recommended that Kromah be dismissed for sharing a customer’s confidential statement with Mr. Alex Williams, a former signatory to LISGIS’s account, and it was immediately executed.
According to the investigation, Kromah confirmed that the statement of accounts he submitted to Williams was the same account displayed on the Social Media platform of Martins Kollie, a political activist.
The investigation says Kromah confirmed that he shared the statement with Williams, but he acted based on trust and did not intend to bring the bank into disrepute.
The investigation established that Kromah started engaging with Alex’s inner circle (surroundings) before Williams’ appearance on Spoon TV.
Smith points out that Kromah’s action was exhibited within the regular course of duty of co-defendant Ecobank, citing the doctrine of Respondent’s Superior, under which the bank cannot escape responsibility for the wrongful conduct of its employee.
Potential jurors will be listening to these arguments to determine the trial. Editing by Jonathan Browne
