Dead_Senator's_Sons_Fight_Over

The Organization of Texas Mandingo

News and Activities

Dead Senator's Sons Fight over Property
While Burial Place Remains in Dispute
J. Rufus Paul
November 27, 2008

Barely few weeks after the death of River Gee Senator Isaac Johnson, his children are not mourning but rather fighting over properties he left behind and other benefits expected to come from the Liberian Government.

The matter, however, has generated into fist fight between the senior son Patrick Johnson and three of his brothers. The former accused the latter of denying him entry into their late father's house. The ensuing fight resulted in the breaking of the windshield of one of the cars of Patrick, while other important properties in the house in Clara Town on Bushrod Island were reportedly destroyed. The fight, according to family sources, lasted for about two days, beginning Monday this week.

Throughout Tuesday morning, family sources told the Daily Observer that the residence of the late Senator was transformed into a boxing ring. The body of the Senator is currently deposited at Samuel A. Striker Funeral Parlor in Sinkor.

When our reporter visited Senator Johnson's Clara Town house late Tuesday afternoon, he noticed some officers of the Liberian National Police (LNP) had come to the house and took the Senator's sons to a local police depot for further probe.

During police investigation, it was discovered that a blue jeep, believed to be a private property of Patrick Johnson, had been broken into by his junior brothers during the fight. The three were, however, placed behind bars at the Vai Town police station after Patrick had insisted that he would prefer that his brothers pay for his jeep.

Isaac Johnson is said to have three sets of children by three women. The three junior brothers who are said to be the last set of children are currently claiming to be the legitimate owners of their father's properties.

However, Patrick told the Daily Observer Tuesday at the police station that he succeeded in stopping his three brothers who had been staying with their father prior to his death from selling the late Senator's jeep to a businessman in the Hotel Africa Community. He pointed out that it was during that period that his junior brothers called him a 'bastard' child.

Patrick furthered disclosed, “I will make sure as a senior son of the family that all of the eight children get equal share of our father's properties.”

Meanwhile, a delegation that was sent from River Gee County to negotiate a possible transfer of the Senator's body to the County has told the Daily Observer that they are now at a confused stage. The head of the group said since they arrived in Monrovia there had been no positive talk with the children of the late Senator concerning the transfer of their father's corpse for burial in the county.

Nat Zico Dardieh, a member of the delegation, said they were about eight members who had been sent by elders of the county after resolving that the body be buried in that part of the country. He told this reporter that instead of negotiating for the transfer of the dead body, the children are engaged in fist fight. The delegation has been in Monrovia since Sunday, Dardieh said.

“Since we came only fighting activities have been going on in this house as you can see. Even today we have not had food to eat because the children have sealed up the entire house. We have hardly had our bath today,” Dardieh noted.

He said one of the major things they had also observed was that the children were split over both where the late Senator should be buried and how the properties would be shared. He pointed that the three junior sons of the late Senator were insisting that their father be buried in Monrovia to avoid expenses while the senior son was saying that as long as the late Senator represented the people of his county as a senator, his body should be buried in River Gee.