A woman who says she witnessed a fatal assault in Porkpa District, Grand Cape Mount County, describes fear, intimidation, and alleged surveillance by a politically connected local figure.
Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia, April 12, 2024, By: Berina Vesegbeh— Jeraldine Marie Travers, one of two women who say they witnessed a fatal assault in Porkpa District, Grand Cape Mount County, says she has been forced into hiding after receiving repeated threats from James Stewart, a locally influential man she alleges was responsible for the attack.
Travers said she and her friend, Rita Kemokai, were walking through a bush path toward Dambala Town when they heard a woman crying out for help. According to Travers, the woman’s voice called Stewart by name as the attack unfolded.
“We were walking through the bush to get to Dambala when we heard a voice saying, ‘You are killing me, Stewart,’” Travers recalled, describing the moment as traumatic.
She said she and Rita hid themselves to avoid being seen and get a glimpse of what was happening and they saw a man (Stewart) striking a woman with a large stick, when she fell to the ground, his men held her down and then he began chopping off her body parts with a cutlass.
As they continuously carried out the chopping, the lady voice started fading and she stopped moving and went very silent as she laid on the ground,” Travers said.
Travers said the incident left her shaken and unable to remain silent. As she and her friend (Rita)began crying, she said, Stewart noticed them nearby. Travers said, “Stewart sent his men after them and they managed to escape”.
We thought he didn’t recognize us, few days after we escaped, we m started getting information from our neighbours that strange men were asking questions about what time on February 6,2024 we reached home from work and what directions we always use when going and coming from work.
According to Travers, after Stewart was done with his interrogation with their neighbours, he started making advances toward them. Travers said they began getting threats from Mr. Stewart.
Whenever they go home or to work, Mr. Stewart would repeatedly send his men to their homes and workplace to warned them not to speak about what they had seen or else they would turn out dead like the person they watched him killed.
Unfortunately, on April 6, 2024, Travers said she lost her friend, Rita, who was murdered in the process. Mr. Stewart and his men were responsible for her friend’s murder. She went on to explain that her friend had died because of the murder they witnessed.
Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, Travers alleged that men connected to Mr. Stewart monitored her movements. She said that she and her friend had been followed, which ultimately led to the murder of her friend. She claimed that Stewart’s alleged connections to business and political circles made it difficult for her to seek protection or speak publicly.
According to our reporter, Travers is still in hiding and figuring out how she could escape country. She said Stewart’s alleged connections to security, business, and political circles made it difficult for her to seek protection or speak publicly while she remained within reach of those she believed could find her.
Local accounts have long described Stewart as an associate of Idrissa Massalay, a mining and business figure in Grand Cape Mount County who has been viewed by some residents as a powerful political actor in the region. Massaley is a major power broker in the Western region of Liberia.
He is noted for using his vast financial resources in hiring thugs to cause havoc in communities in Grand Cape Mount County.
Stewart was reportedly one of the main men used by Massaley to unleash havoc on peaceful citizens during a Senatorial by election in which a candidate favored by Massaley, Victor Watson was contesting. It can be recalled that a group of prominent citizens of Grand Cape Mount in 2021 issued a statement complaining of havoc being undertaken in their community by men hired by Massaley and Watson.
“Watson and Massaley have been leading a group of thugs who have been wreaking havoc on our people,” the citizens said in a statement read at the time by Dr. Lyndon Mabande, an eminent citizen of the county and a son of Dambala Town, Porkpa District.
Despite the statement at the time, no arrests were made and the men of Watson and Masseley were moving about freely due to the financial and political influence of Massaley. Travers said Stewart was also the main at the time leading the thugs that were claimed to be hired by Watson and Massaley.
Massaley has failed to deny that his men are armed. However, he has often said his men are only hired to man his mining claims
“This is the very Stewart, I am today, running away from. “
“The continued threats and surveillance have caused me to live in constant fear and have made it extremely difficult for me to live a normal life in Liberia. “
Stewart is believed to also have good relations with agents of the National Security Agency (NSA), Liberia’s elite secret service institutions and key figures in the cold crimes’ unit of the Liberia National Pollice.
“This man, Stewart, knows very powerful people in our security sector. if he and his men get me, I am done, “a frightened Travers said.
“Terrible people like Stewart should not have the latitude they have.
But sadly, our society gives such men the courage to walk free.
