seek a deed for the Quikon\u2019s estimated 25,000 hectares of land<\/a>, residents said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLoway admitted he sold the clan\u2019s land to Hills, who represents Bong County\u2019s electoral district number one, where Kokoyah falls. Some of Loway\u2019s relatives, who benefited from the illegal transaction, said it undermined the development of their family and clan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surveyors <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nPeople The DayLight interviewed said they saw staffers from Hill\u2019s Capitol Building office and surveyors in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was at my village and saw the people surveying the land. The land is right to my village road there,\u201d said Kerkula Dolokelen, an elder in a place called Kpelle Town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eric Kangar, Loway\u2019s son, corroborated Davies\u2019 comments. He told The DayLight he did not know about the transaction until it was over. (Loway uses his grandfather\u2019s first name as a mark of respect). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Paramount Chief of Kokoyah District Togar Glaygbo accused Loway of instigating a land conflict. He claimed Loway had sold some of his (Glaygbo) land.<\/p>\n\n\n\nJohn Loway, the elder who sold 300 acres of customary land to Representative Albert Hills, Jr. of Bong County electoral district number one. The DayLight\/James Harding Giahyue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTension brews throughout the community, based on the people we interviewed. Some residents accused Loway and other elders of not recognizing their families as original residents of the clan. Others spoke of a scarcity of farmland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen they continue selling our land, maybe problem will come or we go to the government,\u201d Glaygbo told The DayLight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Denials, Confessions and Admittances<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nLoway confirmed he sold the 300 acres to Hills. He told The DayLight at his home in Loway Village, \u201cIf you want to do your farm\u2026 I will give you [farmland]. \u201cIf you want to buy it, then we\u2019ll talk.\u201d He backtracked on that statement later in the interview, saying he was leaving the remaining land for his children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loway said he did not inform Glaygbo and other elders about his transaction with Hills for a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLet me be bold with you,\u201d an ailing Loway said leaning in a chair against the mudbrick wall of his house. \u201cThose men, the last time they sold some of the land over there (Rock Crusher) and did not even give us five dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apart from Loway, other townspeople accused Glaygbo of selling the clan\u2019s land, too. A person who does not want to be identified gave The DayLight a list of illegal land sellers, including Loway, Glaygbo and his brother Morris Glaygbo. Efforts to speak with Morris Glaygbo did not materialize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Togar Glaygbo denied the accusations. \u201cLet them show one person I sold land to,\u201d Glaygbo said, listing people Loway has transacted with, including Hills. He said Loway accused him falsely to discredit his criticism of his deal with Hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDavid Kangar denies knowledge of the illegal land transaction but admits he received L$5,000 of the proceeds. The DayLight\/James Harding Giahyue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLoway refutes his nephew Kangar\u2019s claim that Kangar did not know of the transaction with Hills. Eric Kangar, Loway\u2019s son, claimed David Kangar even received L$60,000 of the illicit proceeds. (Eric Kangar disclosed that he himself received L$15,000)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now confronted with Loway\u2019s and Eric Kangar\u2019s claims, David Kangar confessed, saying he only received L$5,000 from the deal. He regretted his involvement, which he said undermined his children\u2019s future and the clan\u2019s. \u201cIt (sale of the land) is affecting us. The reason is that we are [bearing] our children,\u201d David Kangar lamented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Kangar had not mentioned anything about money when we interviewed him earlier. He had said Hills\u2019 survey of the 300 acres was to his \u201coutmost surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hills is adamant that he illegally purchased the land from Loway in two interviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the physical interview, the lawmaker confirmed that he had bought the land in 2019 but argued it did not belong to the community. He claimed to have both a tribal certificate and title deed for the land, declining to show the documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI passed through all the channels,\u201d Hills said, lecturing our reporter on land acquisition. \u201cEven today if I want to get land, I can get it. Any person I want to get land from, once I reach to the community people and say that\u2019s the owner of the land, I can buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hills refused to say how much he paid Loway for the land. None of David Kangar, Eric Kangar and Loway provided that information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hills\u2019 comments are not factual. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAn elevation image of a portion of land in Quikon Clan in Kokoyah District, Bong County. Per the Land Rights Act, customary land cannot be sold until 2068. The DayLight\/Derick Snyder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFirst, Hills\u2019 tribal certificate and deed story contradicts Loway\u2019s account. Loway said that their transaction was not officially documented, as he did not have a deed for the land in question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, one cannot have a deed and a tribal certificate for the same plot of land at the same time, per the land law. Tribal certificates, and land documents issued by chiefs and elders, must be vetted and then transformed into official deeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the land law prohibits tribal certificates as of September 2018, about a year before Hills\u2019 deal with Loway. Under the law, customary land can only be leased based on certain requirements, including residents\u2019 establishment of a community land development and management committee or CLDMC. That is the process Quikon began by consenting to work with the Gbarnga-based NGO Parley Liberia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To achieve that goal, Quikon must first self-identify as a landowning community. Thereafter, it will map its estimated 25,000-hectare land area, create bylaws, establish a governance team and cut boundaries with neighboring clans. Then the Liberia Land Authority will confirm their land area and give them a customary deed, according to the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isaac Davies, one of Loway\u2019s nephews, who said he moved back to Quikon from Monrovia to protect the clan\u2019s land, said elders were selling the clan\u2019s land for chainsaws, clothes, and roofing sheets. He said he now had to walk an hour and 45 minutes to his farm because Hills\u2019 rubber farm barricades it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Davies wants residents to strive to get back the land Hills purchased. \u201cTo us, the survey is not genuine, even if the President signed it,\u201d Davies said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Top: A poster showing Representative Albert Hills, Jr. (middle) flanked by John Loway and David Kangar in election images of the Quikon Clan in Kokoyah District, Bong County. Images by James Harding Giahyue and Derick Snyder. Graphic by Rebazar Forte By James Harding Giahyue and Esau J. Farr Representative Albert Hills, Jr. of Bong County […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-land-rights","category-rainforest"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t
\n\t\t\tHome<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tRainforest<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tLand Rights<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tLawmaker Illegally Bought 300 Acres of Community Land\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68"},{"label":"Rainforest","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/category\/rainforest\/"},{"label":"Land Rights","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/category\/rainforest\/land-rights\/"},{"label":"Lawmaker Illegally Bought 300 Acres of Community Land","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2023\/07\/15\/liberian-lawmaker-illegally-bought-300-acres-of-community-land\/"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3899"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3910,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899\/revisions\/3910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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