Court Dismisses Case Of Chief Manga Williams' Succession

By Francis Tim Mbom from the Up Station Newspaper

The High Court Of Fako has dismissed a motion brought before it by Prince Jesco Manga Williams against the SDO of Fako on grounds that there was no substantive matter before the court from which the motion was originating from.Prince Jesco, 88, and the elder brother to the late Paramount Chief of Limbe, Ferguson Billa Manga Williams, had filed a motion before the High Court of Fako, HCF, in Buea against the SDO of Fako, sometime in January, praying the Court to cause the defendant to hand over the WILL of the late Ferguson's will to the former.

But Justice Leslie Fobang in a ruling delivered Tuesday, February 21, in his Chambers, dismissed the case.Prince Jesco's counsel, Barrister Benjamin Enow of Liberty Law Firm , Mutengene, told The Post that the matter was quashed for lack of a substantive case or an originating matter to the motion.

Barrister Enow said they were going to concert with their client and will file for the court to issue a letter of administration of Late Ferguson's Estates to their client.

Since the Paramount Chief of Limbe died on July 7 and was laid to rest on September 9, there has been no successor as yet. All attempts to find one has meet with some resistance, this way or that way.

According to the motion before the Court: HCF/ 0055/ M/ 05-06, Prince Jesco is said to have on OCtober 11, contested when a WILL said to have been left by his late brother, Ferguson, was read out in his residence (Jesco) during a family meeting he had convened with the Fako SDO, the Probitry of the High Court, security officials and other family members.

According to the contents as read out, the late

Ferguson

willed that the GM of CDC, Henry Njalla Quan, be his successor.The motion before the Court stated that Prince Jesco "registered his objection and protest as to the origin, authenticity and contents," of the WILL.

Prince Jesco in a briefing to The Post after the ruling on Tuesday, told The Post that to the best of his knowledge, his brother "left no will." As to why he was contesting the WILL, he said when his younger brother, late

ferguson

, died, he (Jesco) wrote to the Fako administration to find out if the late Chief left anything in their keeping as a WILL. He said he got no response.

He further said it was only when he, as the family head had summoned a meeting for the issue of succession to be looked into that a WILL surfaced. According to him after the WILL was read, the administration refused to let him have the copy.

This prompted him, he said to file a case in court in order to cause the Fako Admistration to surrender the WILL to him.

Legal Mind

Barrister Sylvester Awasume in reaction to what the law holds about the authencity of a WILL said, normally a will as per the law has to be written in three signed copies and should have two witnesses; one copy, he said, has to be deposited with the probitry of the court and two with either the lawyer of the person or his/her confidant. He said the beneficiary of the WILL, by law, has to have no prior knowledge of it nor where it is kept. "It can be kept anywhere," he said.

link to newspaper article here