Some of the seized and revoked Biometric Voters’ Registration cards fraudulently obtained by a Sierra Leonean Immigration officers along with other unscrupulous Sierra Leonean nationals at the Vaikenway Registration Center a Village along the way to Mano River Kongo in Grand Cape Mount County

By Jenneh S. Kemokai – Internews Elections Reporting Fellow

IPNEWS-Sinje Town, Grand Mount: In the wake of a growing campaign against Voters Trucking in the country, investigations conducted by Internews Election Reporting Fellow, Jenneh S. Kemokai of Radio Cape in Sinje Town, Grand Cape Mount County, have discovered a rampant involvement of Sierra Leoneans in the Biometric Voters Registration exercise in Grand Cape Mount County.

It can be recalled the National Elections Commission (NEC) announced that Phase-One of the Biometric Voters’ Registration Exercise that covered six counties, including Montserrado, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa and Margibi Counties kicked on Monday March 20, 2023 and ended on Sunday, April 9, 2023.

According to the NEC, Phase-Two gets underway on Tuesday April 21 to Thursday May 11, 2023 in the remaining counties which include Lofa, Bong, Nimba, Grand Gedeh, River Gee, Maryland, Grand Kru, Sinoe and Rivercess respectively.

Headquarters of the National Elections Commission (NEC) in Sinkor, Monrovia

The unscrupulous act which was suspected as a coordinated one was believed to be orchestrated by politicians with cross-border connections and partially aided by some NEC officials in the county.

The external voters trucking was also going hand in hand with the internal voters trucking as politicians were seen crisscrossing with registrants all over the county.

Though the internal voters tucking was also a cause of alarm, it was the influx of Sierra Leoneans that brought serious confrontations among residents at some of the registration centers in the county with Porkpa District being the center of BVR’s related conflict.

Sierra Leonean Immigration Border Guard Sylvester J. Koroma in handcuffs after being arrested by Liberian security forces at the Bamballah Police Details while on his way to Sierra Leone using the Gangamah crossing point in Grand Cape Mount County

During an investigative tour along the bordering towns in both Tewor and Porkpa districts, it was discovered that several Sierra Leoneans obtained the Liberian BVR cards.

One such person is a Sierra Leonean Immigration Border Guard whose name is Sylvester J. Koroma but managed to change his name to Sylvester Flomo to acquire a Liberian BVR card.

Sylvester Koroma was seen in Bamballah Town where residents of the town saw him very suspicious and decided to question his nationality if he was a Liberian. Koroma, now Flomo is said to have registered at the Vaikenway Registration Center a Village along the way to Mano River Kongo and was reported by residents who were not satisfied with him.

Sierra Leone Immigration Border Guard, Sylvester J. Koroma in handcuffs being taken into custody by Liberian security forces along the Liberia/Sierra Leone in Grand Cape Mount County

Sylvester Koroma was later arrested by Joint Security at the Bamballah Police Details while on his way to Sierra Leone using the Gangamah crossing point.

The Sierra Leonean Immigration officer was not the only person involved in such a crime, our investigation uncovered several others in a similar situation with several BVR cards belonging to Sierra Leonean nationals.

These registrations happened after the NEC workers in the district rejected several of these Sierra Leoneans from some of the centers.

Back in Juejuah Town also in Porkpa District, there was chaos when supporters of three lawmakers clashed with the residents of the town which resulted in a serious assault on the Town Chief.

According to Senator Simeon Taylor, one of the lawmakers who were present in Juejuah Town, their visit was in response to reports of Sierra Leoneans trooping into the Biometric Voters Registration (BVR) process.

In Bo Waterside, Tewor District, there was an incident with a first-time voter, from Sierra Leonean who had just crossed from Sierra Leone under the instruction of a relative to come and get a BVR card.

Muda Rogers as he is called said he could not speak English but only Mende and alleged that it was one Manja Gaya Fahnbulleh who contacted his relative to come and register.

Sierra Leone Immigration Border Guard, Sylvester J. Koroma

However, efforts to speak with senatorial aspirant Manja Gayah Fahnbulleh did not materialize up to press time.

Rogers who was seen very impatient in the queue said they were three in number adding that if they could not get the card on Wednesday they would cross back as they have nothing to lose.

While in Bo Waterside, it was discovered that a BVR Registrar who was accused of denying foreigners was later reassigned to Kpeneji Town by NEC officials in the county.

Speaking to our investigator, the reassigned NEC Registrar Ansu Konneh said during his work at Bo Waterside he rejected trucks full of people who were not Liberians but had come to get registered at the Bo Waterside Registration Center.

The flipsides of a Liberian Biometric Voters’ Registration card and a Sierra Leonean voters card that was found on the Sierra Leone Immigration border guard, Sylvester J. Koroma by Liberian security forces while making his way back to his native Sierra Leone before he was arrested.

The NEC Registrar alleged that his reassignment was a result of his refusal to allow foreigners to get involved in the Liberian voting process.

Konneh alleged that while on duty, politicians were calling and talking to him to compromise the process by allowing people from Sierra Leone to register which he refused, and because of that, he was sent to another Center under a different electoral District.

Ansu said he was called by the Magistrate to leave the Bo Center and come to the Kpeneji registration Center on March 27, 2023.

When contacted by the supervisor of the Bo Waterside BVR Center, Precious Jumah, disclosed that the decision to reassign Ansu to another center was based on the too many complaints coming against him from the center.

However, she briefly stated that Ansu was rejecting people from voting but did not specify whether those being rejected were Liberians or Sierra Leoneans.

But our investigation established that Ansu, who speaks Mendi very well was able to determine during registration who was a Liberian or a Sierra Leonean from the Mendi tribe, which is spoken both in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Meanwhile, the Grand Cape Mount County NEC Magistrate, Joseph Kiazolu has questioned the online portion of the registration.

According to Magistrate Kiazolu, the online procedure allowed foreigners to participate in the process citing its less interrogative nature.

The Gangamah crossing point in Grand Cape Mount County where the Bamballah Police Details arrested the Sierra Leone Immigration Border Guard for fraudulently acquiring Liberia Biometric Voters’ Registration card. 

He, therefore, said as it was a new process more learning was done and hope to rectify future processes.

Liberia’s Electoral Act stipulates that voter trucking is a violation of the law and provides some form of punishment for such malpractice.

Section 3.1 of the Electoral Law states: “A person must register to vote at a voter registration Center established by the NEC for the place where he or she ordinarily resides and must vote at the polling place established by the NEC for voters registered at that center.’’

Section 10.1a of the same law prohibits a person from moving to an area where one does not reside to register and to this section, a violation is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for not more than six (6) months or both.

Meanwhile, the Liberia National Police told our investigator reported that the Sierra Leoneans who were arrested in Grand Cape Mount for acquiring Liberian Biometric Voters’ Registration Cards were turned over to Sierra Leonean authorities some time ago, where they are expected to face the law in that country for their illegal actions into neighboring Liberia. It is not however known whether the Liberian government will pursue the prosecution of those Sierra Leonean nationals who committed electoral crimes in Liberia or they will let the accused go unpunished in keeping with the laws.

Note: Story reported by Internews Elections Reporting Fellow, Jenneh S. Kemokai of Radio Cape Mount with the editorial support of Mentor Siebo Williams, E-I-C, IPNEWS, representing the Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL). The project is subsidized by Internews through the USAID Media Activity Program.