Published: September 17, 2026
MONROVIA – A National Disaster Management Agency coordinator told Criminal Court ‘C’ on Tuesday that no 5,000-bag shipment of Saudi-donated rice ever reached the agency’s Gbarnga regional hub, where the shipment was allegedly sent, in the trial of former Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah and other former officials.
By Melvin Jackson
Asked how he knew, the witness said: “Because I was there.”
A second witness, Isaac K. Weede, chairman of the Lakpazee Community in Sinkor, testified that he never received any Saudi-donated rice on behalf of the community and knew of no one there who had.
Kemayah and his co-defendants face charges including theft of property, economic sabotage, misuse of public money, property or records, theft and/or illegal disbursement and expenditure of public money, misapplication of entrusted property, abuse of office and criminal conspiracy. The government is prosecuting the case through the Ministry of Justice and the Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval Taskforce, chaired by Cllr. Edwin K. Martin. Judge Ousman F. Feika is presiding.
The case concerns 29,412 bags of 25-kilogram rice donated by Saudi Arabia in April 2023 for vulnerable and disaster-affected Liberians. The taskforce alleges that 25,054 bags, valued at about US$425,918, were unlawfully diverted, misapplied or distributed without proper authorization, FrontPage Africa reported. Kemayah has maintained that he did not steal, receive or personally benefit from the rice.
The NDMA witness testified that he began volunteering with the agency in 2022 and took over as county coordinator in July 2023. He said the largest single donation he received at the Gbarnga hub was 280 bags, and when asked how many bags he received from the agency during the period in question, he again said 280.
He recalled an 80-bag delivery tied to a disaster in Zota District and a 200-bag delivery for affected communities in Gbarnga, which he said was taken directly to those communities and distributed there. He also cited disaster incidents in areas including Civil Compound, Frog Island and Brooklyn that prompted specific deliveries.
Defense lawyers pressed him on the basis for his claim about the 5,000 bags and on who allegedly sent them. The court sustained objections to several of those questions, leaving parts of the allegation unexplored.
The defense also questioned him about when he took control of the hub. He told investigators that when he assumed responsibility for the warehouse, he found no rice there, and that supplies arriving afterward were distributed promptly, sometimes the same day, according to testimony in court.
An NDMA witness also described the agency’s distribution system, testifying that disaster officials collected data from affected communities, identified the people affected and used that information to distribute relief, with beneficiaries expected to sign for what they received.
Weede told the court he has lived in Lakpazee for more than 40 years and has been community chairman since his election on May 31, 2016. He confirmed a written statement he gave taskforce investigators, who he said visited his home and asked whether the Disaster Commission or anyone else had brought food or rice into the community. The statement was identified in court and reconfirmed as part of the prosecution’s marked evidence.
He testified that Lakpazee has seven blocks, each with a block leader, and that when relief supplies are officially delivered, community leaders call a meeting, tell residents how much was received and take part in distributing it.
Under cross-examination, the defense sought to establish that his knowledge did not extend to all seven blocks. Weede acknowledged that the block leaders were not present when he gave his statement and that he was not personally present in every block when relief activities may have occurred. He maintained that his statement rested on his own knowledge and his duties as chairman, and that distributions involving large quantities would ordinarily be brought to his attention.
The defense also asked Weede about a reported fire in Zinc Camp that allegedly killed a handicapped man and his wife. Weede said he knew of several fires in Lakpazee but could not identify that incident without more details. He recalled a fatal fire in Block E in 2012 or 2013, before he became chairman, that killed a woman and her two children, and said he knew of no fire since he took office that killed a handicapped person.
Other defendants include former Foreign Ministry official Thelma Sawyer and NDMA officials Augustine Tamba, Augustine Kollie and Henry O. Williams, along with other government employees and people associated with logistics, warehousing and distribution, according to the court record.
The defendants are presumed innocent unless the prosecution proves the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
The trial continues before Feika.
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