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VAMBO, Grand Bassa County \u2013 The allegations in Lee Clutz\u2019 lawsuit against villagers in Togar Town and Pastor Town are grave: armed robbery and terroristic threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit alleges locals terrorized Clutz\u2019 mineworkers with firearms and destroyed his properties, documents of the St. John River City Magisterial Court in Compound Two, Grand Bassa County, show. The documents say the villagers demolished an air tank, a light rope, nine pieces of washing rugs and other items valued over US$1,340.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two Mondays ago, the villagers appeared in court but did not have the US$500 bond the court imposed on them so, the court extended the payment period to the following week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe law must take its course,\u201d said Clutz in an interview with The DayLight outside the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the case is about the villagers\u2019 alleged offenses, it exposes Clutz\u2019 illegal mining activities, a crime that equally carries a fine and a prison term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DayLight had tracked Clutz down at the courthouse and quizzed him over the incident\u2014and his mining activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clutz’s information and those from the villagers paint a picture of deception, pollution, corruption and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The machine sound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last August, Clutz and the townspeople entered an agreement that allowed him to dredge a creek in their area for gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vambo has a huge potential for the mineral, according to research conducted by the United States Geological Survey and the Ministry of Mines and Energy. The region hosts Mount Finley, a 350-meter-high mountain, which is part of a 400-kilometer region extending across the Sierra Leone border. Over the years, it has attracted a lot of artisanal miners\u2014many of whom are illegal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In exchange for dredging the creek, Clutz promised to build two handpumps to replace the creek. He would fix a major bridge in the area, and give the villagers L$5,000 each month he worked there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the agreement in place, Clutz set up his dredge on the Swah Creek. The stream is a tributary of the St. John River, flowing through the Number Two District and is a source of water for several villages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clutz\u2019 dredge, which comprised a water pump machine attached to a raft made from planks and blue plastic barrels, used a tube to suck mud from the bottom of a creek. It pumped the muddy water to an inclined, rugged stage that trapped gold nuggets, dirtying the creek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the villagers living up to the agreement, Clutz failed to erect the handpumps as he had promised. He did not regularize payment of the L$5,000 nor fix the bridge. Throughout his four months of dredging, he made only two payments, the villagers said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The townswomen, after seeing they could not use the creek to even wash, complained to the town authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe water is dirty and some of us are getting sick from drinking [it],\u201d Martha Vonleh, chair lady of Togar Town, told The DayLight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, the villagers drove Clutz from the towns but he did not leave the region completely. Instead, he set up another camp upstream in Bonwin nearby and resumed dredging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That angered the villagers. On the night of Decoration Day this year\u2014March 13\u2014the youth of the area ransacked his new waterfront goldmine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe went to raid them and they saw our lights ran. So, we took all that they were working with and brought them to the town chief,\u201d Elijah Darkenal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe were 12 people that left that night to check on them. We went in Pastor town and told the other folks we heard machine sound,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Darkenal denies he and other villagers carried firearms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reporters visited the scene of the raid and saw the dredge machine on the muddy water, partly covered with rags. The raiders took pieces of equipment from the scene and carried them to Ezekiel Boima, the Town Chief of Togar Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Daylight reporters saw a few items, including a big brown tub, washing rugs, back bags, rice, light rope, tarpaulin, pot, shovel and a gas tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moratorium on dredging<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Without naming Rufus Garkpah, the local mining official, and Abednego Mardeh, a patrolman, Clutz accused local mining authorities of sharing his gold but failing to protect him against the villagers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe agents and other people are on the field collecting bills to enable us to [dredge] in our Liberian setting. They are collecting money from us,\u201d Clutz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clutz called on the Ministry of Mines to lift a moratorium on dredging<\/a> to prevent mining representatives from exploiting miners. The moratorium was meant to curb the pollution of water bodies<\/a> countrywide and the degradation of the rural environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want the government to legalize it for\u2026 all Liberians to benefit from the resources than to enrich individuals,\u201d Clutz added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was the second time Garkpah was directly or indirectly mentioned. The villagers in Togar Town said Mardeh had introduced Clutz to them on Garkpah\u2019s behalf. Mardeh even attended meetings between them and Clutz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cClutz came to me along with Mardeh and said he wanted to dredge the water. So, I told him I will inform the surrounding villages that drink from the Swah Creek, including Pastor Town and Jerome Karngoun Town,\u201d said Ezekiel Boima, Elder of Togar Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mardeh\u2019s presence at the courthouse appears to support the villagers\u2019 accusations. Reporters saw Mardeh enter the clerk\u2019s office. Later, Ernest Gblorso, the chairman of Vambo Township Development Association, said Mardeh had come to plead for the townsmen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mardeh denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He admitted he attended meetings between Clutz and the townspeople with Garkpah\u2019s consent. However, the meetings were not for dredging, but rather a small-scale mining that uses handheld tools. \u201cWe never talked about dredging,\u201d Mardeh said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His comments are not backed by facts. Clutz has never acquired a legal mining license before, at least not in his name. Also, Mardeh sidestepped why he did not take any action against Clutz for dredging. Mining without a license carries a penalty of up to a US$2,000 fine, a two to three-month prison term, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Mardeh, Garkpah denies the accusations against him. He said he had not seen Clutz since this year, and that he only sent Mardeh at the court to witness the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the court hearing last Tuesday, the villagers failed to secure a bond.\u00a0 However, the elders are pleading with Clutz to withdraw the case and settle it in the town, where it all started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The United States Embassy provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story\u2019s content.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Top: Swah Creek, where Clutz has been dredging in Togar Town. Picture credit: An anonymous villager By Emmanuel Sherman and Charles Gbayor VAMBO, Grand Bassa County \u2013 The allegations in Lee Clutz\u2019 lawsuit against villagers in Togar Town and Pastor Town are grave: armed robbery and terroristic threat. The lawsuit alleges locals terrorized Clutz\u2019 mineworkers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4867,"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":[82,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-investigations","category-mining"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"Illegal Miner Sues Villagers, Exposing His Crimes - The DayLight","description":"VAMBO, Grand Bassa - The allegations in Lee Clutz\u2019 lawsuit against villagers in Togar Town and Pastor Town are grave: armed robbery and terroristic threat.","canonical_url":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2024\/04\/21\/illegal-miner-sues-villagers-exposing-his-crimes\/","robots":"noindex, nofollow, max-image-preview:large","keywords":"","webmasterTools":{"msvalidate.01":"CA6BD2F84653EA44942A55ABC0B35372","miscellaneous":""},"schema":null,"og:locale":"en_US","og:site_name":"The DayLight - The DayLight is a nonprofit, environmental news website. Our evidence-based, independent and quality news contents tell you all the happenings across nature\u2019s frontiers and the extractive sector in Liberia. From forestry and fisheries to wildlife conservation and climate change, from renewable energy and land rights to oil\/gas and oil palm, we bring you news on everything about the environment you need to know. 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