By Lincoln G. Peters
Monrovia, Liberia, January 16, 2025 – Testifying as co-defendant, Ecobank’s first witness in the ongoing US$700,000 libel lawsuit at the Civil Law Court in Monrovia, Mr. Stephen Howard had admitted that the account statement of the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) was leaked to Alex Williams, former Deputy Director General for Statistics, a non-signatory of the account by one of its employee Yussif Kromah, for Acting head of the Card Operation Department.
Witness Howard, the bank corporate manager, testified here on Monday, January 13, 2025, that the bank did not authorize Kromah to release any information about customers’ account details to a non-signatory of the account.
“Kromah violated the confidentiality agreement signed with the bank, and he was dismissed immediately after an investigation by the internal audit department, and I approved the findings,” Witness Howard said during his testimony.
Wilmot Smith, the dismissed deputy director general for information coordination at LISGIS, filed an Action of Damages for Wrong lawsuit against the bank and Kromah, seeking US$500,000 as general damages and US$200,000 in punitive damages for allegedly committing a libelous act of harming his reputation.
Smith argued that Kromah allegedly shared details of LISGIS’ account statements with Alex Williams, former Deputy Director General for Statistics, a non-authorized individual of the account, who displayed the information with co-defendants Spoon TV, Mr. Stanton Witherspoon and Martin K, N. Kollie, on social media, manipulating the information and accusing him (Smith) of withdrawing monies from the Population Census fund intended to pay enumerators to his personal use.
Smith further argued that under the doctrine of Respondent’s superior, the employer is responsible for the act and conduct of its employee, especially when the wrongful conduct was done during the course of duty of the employee and within the working hourly time of the employee in the bank facility.
But Howard countered that the bank cannot be responsible for the act of Kromah because they conducted an investigation and established that he (Kromah) allegedly leaked the information with co-defendant Williams. “Kromah violated the bank’s confidentiality agreement when he, without any authority, released the account statement of LISGIS to a non-signatory of the account,” testified Howard, who heads the Disciplinary Committee at Ecobank (Liberia) Limited.
Howard further testified that the matter was brought to his attention by former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah after it was reported in a daily.
“Immediately when Minister Tweah wrote us that we have released the LISGIS’s Account Statement to the press, accusing him (Tweah) and Smith of opening an account in Cote d’ Ivorie, where they transferred millions from the Census fund, we responded by denying any connection with the publication,” Howard said.
“This publication is misleading, and it was Ecobank that transferred the money to a bank in Cote d’Ivoire to purchase Census materials for LISGIS,” Howard said.
Further to his testimony, Howard also explained that he learned about the leaking of LISGIS’s account statements when Smith approached him in his office.
He said Smith informed him that he (Smith) was allegedly maligned by Williams and Spoon TV and Mr. Stanton Witherspoon and Martin K. N. Kollie, incriminating him to diverting Census money into his personal benefits on social media.
H continued that it was then that he ordered the bank’s audit department to conduct an investigation of the matter since it was grave.
“It was during the investigation that we were able to trace Kromah to the violation of the confidentiality agreement signed with him, preventing employee from disclosing clients’ account information. After the investigation, we’re dismissed,” Howard said.
Smith’s lawsuit argues that the defendants produced the bank statements of LISGIS’ account numbers #6101350441 and 6100064362 to Mr. Alex Williams, an employee of LIGIS, who is one of the panelists on the Spoon Talk Show.
According to him, he was accused of withdrawing monies from the accounts, and diverted same to his benefits.
According to Cllr. Arthur Johnson, Smith’s lawyer, the bank statements were printed while his client was still employed by LISGIS as deputy director.
“The said statements were manipulated by the defendants and the management of Spoon TV, and Mr. Stanton Witherspoon, to lie that the said statements were evidence of the wrongful withdrawal,” the suit claims.
The court record said that at the time of the libelous action, co-defendant Kromah was then employed by the co-defendant bank and assigned to the Card Operation Department.
“This act of Kromah was carried out on October 31, 2022, admitted to it in an Affidavit of attestation dated March 30,” the record alleges.
The suit further details that co-defendant Ecobank, after investigating, was fully aware that their conduct against the plaintiff had harmed his reputation.
He noted that “the defendants engaged in a cosmetic approach of attempting to deal with the situation, dismissed co-defendant Kromah on January 19, 2023.”
The lawsuit claims that the defendant Ecobank is responsible for the act and conduct of its employee, Kroma,h because the co-defendant Eco-bank lawfully employed Kromah.” Editing by Jonathan Browne
