The second witness for Co-defendant Ecobank in the case involving the leaking of LISGIS account information on Tuesday, January 14, testified in the Civil Law Court. The witness, Muldeen Bakinde from Ecobank, recounted how the former Acting Branch Head, Yussif Kromah, allegedly shared LISGIS account statements with an unauthorized individual, Alex Williams, former Deputy Director General for Statistics at LISGIS.
The trial centers around the accusation that Kromah, Williams, and Ecobank collaborated to disclose sensitive LISGIS financial information to the media, especially Spoon TV and other social media platforms.
This reported illegal action allegedly resulted in misinformation and reputational damage to individuals including Wilmot Smith, the former Deputy Director General for Information Coordination at LISGIS.
Smith, who was a signatory to LISGIS’s account before the alleged incident, claimed wrongful dismissal by former President George Weah due to the misinformation spread through social media channels.
Williams, Kromah and the Ecobank are being tried for allegedly colluding to share LISGIS’s account statements with the Spoon TV and social media platform, who then misrepresented the information publicly, implicating Wilmot Smith, former Deputy Director General for information Coordination at LISGIS, accusing him of an unauthorized withdrawal of funds intended for census enumerators, in 2022.
Smith, who prior to the opening of the Census’ account, was one of the signatories to the LIGIS’s Account, at Ecobank, is now seeking financial compensation, US$500,000 in general damages and US$200,000 in punitive damages, for the damages incurred.
He has implicated Ecobank in the legal proceedings due to Kromah’s employment at the bank, citing the legal principle of respondeat superior, which holds employers accountable for their employees’ actions within their job scope.
During the testimony, Mr. Bakinde, Ecobank’s Head of Internal Control, revealed findings from investigating Kromah’s email activities.
The investigation uncovered instances where Kromah accessed LISGIS account statements and forwarded them to Williams outside of normal banking hours. Bakinde stated that Kromah’s actions were beyond his authorized duties and violated the bank’s policy and procedures.
Following a complaint from the former Finance Minister, Samuel Tweah, regarding the release of LISGIS account details on social media, Bakinde and the bank management team initiated an investigation to address the matter in compliance with the established protocols.
He also alleged that the false information that was disseminated damaged his reputation. Smith’s argument on the inclusion of the bank as a co-defendant, because Kromah was in the employ of the bank, when he allegedly displayed LISGIS’s account statements with Williams and Spoon TV.
He further argued that the bank is liable for Kromah’s actions as per respondeat superior, a legal doctrine that holds employers accountable for their employees’ conduct within the scope of their employment.
Mr. Bakinde, the bank head of Internal Control, in his testimony, told the court that his investigation of Kromah’s email history established that he accessed the LISGIS’s account statements, and sent it to Williams.
“Kromah interacted with the LISGIS’s account statements on July 5, 2022 by 7pm, a non- working banking hour to the public,” Bakinde testified. “Eventually, Kromah sent out an email that contained LISGIS’s account statements to aw@53201.outlook com, the email of Williams.”
Again, on October 31,2022, at 6:44pm, not a normal working banking hour, Bakinde said, Kromah sent another LISGIS’s account statements through an email account owned by Williams.
He claimed that Kromah’s function did not extend to releasing customers’ account statements. But from the investigation, Kromah confirmed that email, and said he was influenced by Williams, who is a very good friend of his.
The investigation also discovered that Kromah accessed the bank platform and downloaded the LISGIS’s account statements that were displayed on the social media platform of Spoon TV. “From the bank’s internal control policy and procedures, Kromah acted outside his official duties and out of context,” Bakinde said.
He said that before the investigation, the bank management team received a complaint from former Finance Minister, Samuel Tweah, regarding the displayed of LISGIS’s account statements on the Spoon TV and social media platform implicating him (Tweah) and Smith of opening a private account in the Cote d’ Ivoire, where they transferred million of United States dollars intended for the operation of the Census fund.
“We responded to that request,” he said.
