The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
August 3, 2020

James Biney

Indisputably in recent times, Pleebo Sodoken District has become the epicenter of Maryland County’s Senatorial Campaign activities. This has forever been the case. During an election, candidates of senatorial elections of Maryland County would normally say, “in addition to winning my stronghold, we will all fight over Pleebo’s votes to get our individual share. And when added to my stronghold’s, I expect to win”. In other words, Pleebo is considered a no man’s land in a senatorial election. As a consequence of the ‘no man’s land’ notion, Pleebo does not have a project that it can boast of from a senator.

But is it really true that Pleebo belongs to no one? No. Pleebo, like the other districts of Maryland: it has towns and villages. Pleebo Sodoken District belongs to the Nyanbo ethnic group. With the CRC Plantation housed in the district over the years, it has been able to bring together ethnic groups from across the country. But past elections’ statistics have shown that the people of Pleebo would prefer voting for sons and daughters of other districts in the county other than their own. In the 2005 Senatorial election, despite Pleebo-Sodoken putting forth one of their own, Cllr. Gloria Scott of Karluway came second in Pleebo District while Sen. John Ballout got the most votes of the county from Pleebo. In 2011, Senator Morias again won the most votes in Pleebo.

It has been almost 40 years since an indigenous son of Pleebo Sodoken District served as a senator for Maryland County. Most of the current youth of Pleebo, below the age of 30, don’t remember who was Pleebo’s last son that served as a senator for the county. But guess what? Pleebo Sodoken-District is the most populated district in the Southeastern region.

Regrettably, after winning the most votes from Pleebo, the district is abandoned by the victor politician. And this has happened to Pleebo over and over. No lesson has been learned.

If you are from another district (Harper, Karluway or Barrobo) of Maryland County, and interested in contesting in a senatorial election someday, and ever committed a heinous crime in Pleebo-Sodoken District, just stay away for a couple of years. Thereafter, return and throw a few dollars around in Pleebo. And you will be hailed as a messiah. And you could win an election. This is the case with NPP Chairman, James Biney, one of the front runners of Maryland 2020 Senatorial election.

James Biney, when he served as Representative during the interim government of Gyude Bryant, led a loot of the Cavalla Rubber Plantation located in Pleebo-Sodoken District. And in about 15 years, almost everyone in the district seems to forget his role. It is a regret that James Biney and others are not listed in the TRC Report for economic crimes when his actions at the plantation were tantamount to that.

After a competitive bidding process of the Cavalla Rubber Plantation by the interim Government of Chairman Bryant, the plantation was awarded to a company owned by Mr. Francis Karpeh, the late Lawrence Doe and others. A couple of companies participated in the bidding process for the award of the Plantation. One of the famous companies that participated in the bidding process was owned by Archie Williams, former head of the Liberia Aviation Authority and an American football player. Although the latter company (co-owned by Williams) was richer and well connected than the former (one co-owned by Karpeh), but the former met the requirements as laid in the bidding process for the plantation by the Government. By this, the contract was awarded to the most compliant company, the one owned by Mr. Francis Karpeh and his colleagues.

James Biney and others opposed the plantation to be given to the declared winner by the Government. But the Government insisted that it would stand by its decision. When all attempts to thwart the Government’s effort in Monrovia failed, Biney decided to use the citizens to take over the plantation. To get that done, he organized and convinced his colleagues by then at the Capitol Building, Representatives Samuel Wilson of Pleebo, David Saydee of Barrobo and Karluway Districts, and Adolphus Wallace of Harper District, to join him execute his plan. He covertly funded pressure groups from Maryland to join him oppose the plantation award. As the tension mounted in Monrovia, James Biney led a team of Maryland lawmakers to the county to hold citizen meetings for them to operate the plantation. Biney has sensed that with the deplorable road condition of the rainy season, and the fact that full disarmament of the rebels had not been done, the Government could not immediately stop any operations that they would carry out at the plantation. With this in mind, they moved in. The delegation held series of meetings in Monrovia and the county: they lied at every meeting that they had brought in some investors who wanted to invest about 100,000,000 (one hundred million) in the plantation and that the Government was opposing it. The citizens, desirous of working after months of no work due to the conflict, believed the lies from Biney and his delegation.

When they saw that they had achieved their objective, the lawmakers set up a management team headed by the late Anthony Queejay as head and Gus Mensah as the sales representative. Augustine Chea, a former employee of MWPI was also brought in as the security chief to ensure that every clandestine deal if any would occur, of the management team, was reported to Biney and his legislative colleagues. The mandate to Anthony Queejay’s management team was, “as you tap, get the rubber out to the Ivory Coast immediately”. They were mindful that the Government would have placed a freeze on their operations anytime had the news gone wide that they were illegally running the plantation. Tons of rubber were tapped and shipped to the Ivory Coast as Biney and his colleagues returned to Monrovia to distract the Government from what they were illegally doing at the plantation in Pleebo. On weekends, Biney and the other lawmakers would fly into Maryland County on UNMIL flight, DASH 7 to collect their share from the plantation. As tappers labored without pay, the Management team of Anthony Queejay and Gus Mensah slept in the best hotels in the Ivory Coast in the name of selling rubber.

As the loot of CRC plantation by Biney and his colleagues and the management team went on, conditions became deplorable with tappers and their families. For months, tappers were not paid. The economy of Maryland collapsed as the plantation, the economic engine of the county, was massively looted.

As the hardship under the plantation continued, a security officer of the plantation, Mr. Suku, went to harvest palm nuts at the Decoris Oil Palm Plantation, now called MOPP. Unfortunately, he was mistaken for an animal, shot, and killed. This would not have occurred if Biney and his colleagues had not exploited tappers whose rubber was looted.

Today, Biney is seen proudly moving back and forth in Pleebo and it's surrounding as if he hasn’t done the worst to Pleebo. Recently he was seen in Gedetarbo as praises were dashed on him. A couple of days ago, he gathered hundreds at Pleebo City Hall to hold a primary that would place him on the CDC ticket.

Does he realize that for his greed for money, a family today is without their loved one, their father, their uncle, their brother, etc?

Oooooh Pleebo; Why Do You Forget So Early?

Author'sNote: My full knowledge of this issue is because of my parents’ connection with the plantation. I too schooled and graduated from the company’s run school called Central Site High School.