By D Abraham Cooper Sr.| Grand Gedeh county Reporter
ZWEDRU, GRAND GEDEH-Residents of B’hai Community have taken control over the ancestral land following a ruling by Seventh Judicial Circuit Court handed down on March 25, 2026 in the city of Zwedru.
“This Court hereby declare the purported Development Grant Deed to Grand Gedeh Reserved Farmland for Nine Hundred Thirty-one Point Four (931.4) acres of land situated Bahi Jouzon, Baʼhi Administrative District, Gbarzon Statutory District, Grand Gedeh County illegal, Null-and-void/ Ab-initio; and is hereby reverted to the People of B’hai Jouzon, B’hal Administrative District, Grand Gedeh County. The Liberian Land Authority is hereby ordered to also cancel the said Deed from its Registry. The costs of these proceedings are hereby disallowed because the Liberian Land Authority is an Agency of Government. AND IT IS HEREBY SO ORDERD. THE DEVELOPMENT GRANT DEED HEREBY CANCELLED”, the court said in its final ruling.
Rights Activists has described the court’s ruling as a stern warning to local authorities regarding the management of customary land. “The court has reaffirmed that the power to lease or sell community land rests with the people, not with individual government officials acting in isolation”, a jubilant community members said.
On October 18, 2025, Grand Gedeh County Authorities, headed by Superintendent Alex Chersia Grant leased a massive tract of forest land to a Burkinabe national, Boubou Sebu for cocoa plantation.
The agreement, valued at US$600,000 for a period of 30 years, was executed without the consent of the B’hai residents, the legitimate traditional owners of the land.
The secret nature of the transaction triggered immediate backlash from Grand Gedeans, prompting high level media delegation to Grand Gedeh on October 26, 2025, led by the Liberia Forest Media Watch.
On Marcy 25, 2026, the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court officially cancelled the controversial lease agreement following months of legal proceedings. The community was represented by Cllr. P. Alphonsus Zeon of the Justice Advocates Law Group, in collaboration with Cllr. James T.Y. Fallah of the Liberia Land Authority.
