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concession agreement, on September 16, 1964 which granted
Togba's company the exclusive exploration and mining rights with
respect to all kinds of ores, metals, minerals, including gold,
diamonds, coals, oil and natural gasses in an area of 500 square
miles (320,000 acres), including the Kitoma Range, and for a
period of 80 years (24), (Also in Liberia ownership of real
property is limited to the surface of the land and according to
law, all mineral deposits in the Republic area owned by the
State (25). Therefore, though it concerned Togba's own land, he
still needed a concession agreement with the Government).
According to Massaquoi he had been instructed in both cases
(both the Preliminary Agreement and the Final Concession
Agreement with Togba) by the President to do so (26) although
this had been in obvious violation of Section 4 of the Concession
Agreement with LAMCO which granted the concessionaires the
exclusive exploration and mining rights in the Concession Area,
and also included an explicit commitment from the Government that
for the entire duration of the concession (until November 18,
2023) it would not grant to anyone apart from the Concessionaires
any concession for the same purposes in this concession area
(27).
Contention over the issue - both between the Concessionaires and
Togba and between the Concessionaires and the Bureau of Natural
Resources and Surveys - had already arisen within a year after
the Concessionaires' filing. When the Director of the Bureau of
Natural Resources and Surveys refused to acknowledge the filing
the Company's money-lenders, the banks - for which the concession
rights served as security - had threatened to consider this
(refusal) as a violation of the Agreement by the Government.
This might result in unwillingness to grant the Company loans
which - in its turn - would impair (at that stage) the Project
(28). After the Government and Togba had signed the agreement
granting Togba exploration and mining rights relative to the
Kitoma Range. LAMCO's Counsel, the Speaker of the House of
Representatives Richard Henries, contacted President Tubman.
Subsequently Tubman directed Massaquoi to solve the problem
"using the Concession Agreement between Government and LAMCO as
your guide"' ( 29 ) .
In 1963 LAMCO had started exploratory work in the Kitoma Range
despite the fact that the area was still Togba's, his property
not being ex-propriated as LAMCO had failed to request the
Government to condemn the property in accordance with Section 6
of its concession agreement. This incited Togba to file several
claims against the Company. The question was only solved in 1965.
On June 4, 1965 the Attorney-General of Liberia, James A.A.
Pierre, declared the concession agreement with Togba a voidable
and unenforcable document_and with respect to private lands
lying within the concession area he saFd
"Also in keeping with the terms of the Concession Agreement
(Section 6), the Concessionaires request for condemnation
of private, property could have only one result,
and that is the granting of the request by Government" (30).