Calm Returns to Manquah Clan Following Months of a Dead Alligator Squabble

TODEE DISTRICT – At long last, calm has returned to Rural Montserrado County’s Manquah Clan, in Todee District, as a nearly five-month-old squabble that ensued over the alleged extraction of parts, especially the removal of the internal organs [“Alligator gut”]  from a dead gator, has been resolved in that part of the country.

A team of traditional authorities from the Traditional Council of Montserrado County mediated the settlement of the dead alligator hullabaloo over the weekend, with the team’s leader, Paramount Chief Stephen Goba, who is also the current Chairman and Speaker of the Liberia National Traditional Council, announcing the quelling of the long-running conflict between citizens of Manquah Clan.

The mediation team derived the resolution of the dead alligator conflict over the weekend, following the end of a day-long town hall dialogue held in Yakpa Town, Todee District when three men accused of extracting the gut from a dead alligator were exonerated.

Under the instructions of Montserrado County Superintendent Whroway Bryant to find an amicable solution to the situation, Chief Goba and team, after conducting series of investigations and interrogating Chief Zoe Kpanneh, Clan Chief Foday Lewis, and Chief of Elders James Tarweh, the three accused of extracting the gut from the dead gator, the men denied the act and stated that contrary to their accusers’ claim, they neither extracted nor were they in possession of the dead animal’s gut, which is believed to be dangerously poisonous.

Todee Chiefdom Paramount Chief Goba told reporters that before arriving at the resolution of the matter, which he said prior to its resolution was stigmatizing Manquah Clan, disclosed that the Traditional Council of Montserrado County’s only available option was to administer what he termed a “Tradition tea” [oath] to the accused.

Montserrado County’s current longest-serving Paramount Chief, Goba, further disclosed that due to speculations regarding alligator gut in Manquah Clan, normal activities had come to a standstill, thereby adversely affecting business activities and stalling the development process of the Clan.

Before administering the traditional oath, citizens of the Clan willingly agreed for the three accused to be subjected to this form of traditional trial, which they believed when done would bring about closure and advance development and business ventures in the area, according to Paramount Chief Goba.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the Liberia National Traditional Council, Paramount Chief Goba has declared Manquah Clan free of the alligator hullabaloo previously casting a dark cloud over the Clan, using the occasion to admonish business people to like in times past now freely transact with citizens of the area.

It is recalled that in July of this year, citizens and residents of Manquah Clan called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to intervene in what they termed the mysterious death of an alligator, leading to the suspension of two local government leaders of the Clan at the time.

Making the call for the Internal Affairs Ministry’s intervention at the time at a town hall mass citizens’ meeting in Yakpa Town, Manquah Clan citizens demanded that Paramount Chief Tony Kanakor and Clan Chief Foday Lewis clearly explain to them what led to the death of an alligator entrusted to their care.

The citizens called on both men to also explain how and where exactly the dead animal remains were disposed of.

The citizens’ call was based on the backdrop that the dead gator’s gut, which is believed to be poisonous, was allegedly extracted and was in the possession of some unidentified individuals, who were reportedly using it to eliminate their perceived enemies by poisoning them with the dangerous bowel of the dead alligator, a situation which instilled fear in many citizens of the area at the time.

Edited by Olando Testimony Zeongar.