Monrovia – The Civil Law Court has adjudged Hassan and Hussein Fadiga liable for damages in the tone of US$1.5 million.
The lawsuit was instituted by the former Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) boss, Colonel Abraham Kromah.
Despite the US$5 million lawsuit Col. Kromah had prayed for from the court, the court on Monday, May 5, reduced the amount by awarding him US$1.5 million for general damages and US$100,000 for punitive damages, which, according to the judge, will serve as a deterrent for the defendants’ reckless, lawless and impolite attitude and for others who sit on the radio and just say anything about others. So, the total amount awarded to the complainant is US$1.6M for damages.
Judge George W. Smith of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Civil Law Court, handed down the ruling Monday, finding the Fadiga brothers jointly and severally liable for libel and slander. The court awarded Kromah US$1.5 million in general damages and US$100,000 in punitive damages, but denied his request for US$2 million in special damages due to lack of documentary proof.
The two defendants, Hassan and Hussein, were absent when the court delivered the ruling, but Cllr. Ambrose Nmah was appointed by the court to receive the ruling on their behalf, where the appointed lawyer took an exception to the ruling and announced an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The action for damages for libel was filed on February 6, 2025. Kromah’s ran to the court when the two defendants accused him among other things of removing CCTV from the home of Convict George Obi alias “Japan”, a notorious drug dealer.
According to his complaint against the Fadigas, the twin brothers alleged that US$200,000 was stolen from the home of Japan when Col. Kromah and his DEA men carried out the raid.
According to court records, Hassan Fadiga, then the Deputy Director General for Operations, at the LDEA, and his brother Hussein Fadiga, a Spoon Talk Show host and self-styled social commentator, claimed publicly that Kromah had ransacked Japan’s home and stolen US$200,000, visited him secretly at the Monrovia Central Prison, and had close ties with drug traffickers.
Minutes after the Court’s ruling, complainant Kromah expressed his hope to newsmen and women that the ruling will serve as a deterrent to people who malign people’s hard-earned character.
Kromah and his legal counsel, Counselor Sayma Syrenius Cephus, a former Solicitor-General and Chief Prosecutor of the Republic of Liberia, that the defendants even allegedly disrespected the court.
“They ravished, maligned and vilified the good character of my client. He came to me and we filed a complaint with the court; the court sent out a Writ of Summons and designated a bailiff to go and serve the Writ of Summons. They came to the point of even attacking her; they insulted her and said that the court was under their feet! So, we simply followed the case and the procedures,” Cllr. Cephus explained. He expressed his delight that the amount the Judge awarded his client is “okay.” “The US$1.5M is general damages; it’s okay for the psychological injury, trauma that he has suffered, harassment, humiliation, public jeering, that is great.”
