From Moses Quollin ~quollinmoses@gmail.com*
A former Representative Candidate in the 2017 presidential and representative elections for electoral district seven, Montserrado County, Emmanuel Togba-Nah Davies has accused one of the bailiffs assigned at the West Point Magisterial court in the city of Monrovia of physically attacking him for reasons unknown.
The bailiff, identified as Richard Saytarcon, is reported to have allegedly assaulted Davies on February 4, 2021 during the tractions of normal courtroom’s businesses, where Davies had filed a lawsuit against some of his own tenants for delinquency in payment of rental fees.
Richard, when contacted by this paper, refused to comment on the matter but referred the reporter to his boss, Stipendiary Magistrate Tweh Wesseh.
Magistrate Wesseh, via mobile phone, confirmed Davies’ claim against Richard but point out that it was a joke between the two persons and his bailiff has since apologized to the former district seven representative candidate.
“That fellow should not amplify this issues mehn…there were no assault, nothing hard. I told the man [bailiff] to apologize to Davies and he did. I don’t know why Davies is behaving like that—he has about three to four different cases with us at the court and we are handling them properly. If the man still has issues, let him come to the court and stop spoiling the good name of the court mehn…” Magistrate Wesseh said.
Davies, owner (administrator) of some properties within and around Montserrado County, where the court is situated, says authorities at the court have on several occasions downplayed some of his issues whenever he took complaint there.
“I was physically abused by a bailiff (Richard Saytarcon) in the West Point court. I took a compliant to the Senior Magistrate, Tweh Wesseh and he did nothing about it. I went to the temple of justice to file a criminal case against the bailiff, when the magistrate was called, he (the magistrate) insulted and belittle me by describing me as a “jarto man.”
“I was just standing on the step waiting for taxi to go home. He (Richard, the court bailiff) just came from nowhere and hit me in my chest without no [prior] communication with him, nothing – only to say that he was joking with me but I don’t know him. How can you hit me so hard and slammed the door in front of me, and later say you are apologizing – joking. I am still feeling pain in my chest right now, just got to see the doctor for medications. “
When asked how the issues started, Davies narrates:
“What I can record, we were in one of the associate magistrates’ office with one [of my] tenants that owed us some money when the associate magistrate ordered the clerk of court to fix a bill of cost. When the clerk of court went to fix the bill of cost, another lawyer who is representing one of my delinquent tenants came into the office and gave a paper to the magistrate, and the magistrate automatically changed his mind from fixing the bill of cost to stop payment. The magistrate told me to go back to the temple of justice so they can discuss the court order that they received. So, while leaving the court building, that’s the time I was attacked by the court bailiff for no reason. But this is not the first time I have been abused and taken to this same magistrate who doesn’t take serious my issues. I no longer fell safe carrying complaints to that magistrate. “
