Pastor Kollie Accused of “Dubiously” Changing CAN’s Registration Document

The CEO of Change Agent Network (CAN)-USA and Opportunity Network Liberia, Mr. Eric Willise Wowoh, has accused one Pastor Kollie Jallah of illegally forging the Articles of Incorporation of CAN-Liberia thereby making him (Jallah) the legitimate owner of the NGO and not Eric and his partners. 

Talking about this to journalists recently, Eric narrated, “In 2002, We started Change Agent Network in Nigeria. Specifically, I and my dear brother, friend, and partner Mr. Desmond Ovbiagele, who is a Nigerian, started this entity together. We had other Nigerians on the board; we had registered it in Nigeria. In 2002, Mr. Ovbiagele donated me my first computer and funded the entire organization in the Oru-Ijebu Refugee Camp, Ogun State, Nigeria. From the origins of that one single desktop computer, CAN was birthed and has incredibly transformed into the largest educational infrastructure and community developer NGO in Liberia. This man tremendously changed my entire life forever. 

In 2005, I brought CAN to Liberia from the refugee camp. At that time, the Liberia Business Registry (LBR) and the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) were not yet established. All we had at that time was the Foreign Affairs Ministry where all NGOs used to go for registration. So, I went there and registered Change Agent Network in Liberia. Mr. Roosevelt Woods was the one who helped me do the processing of all the paper works and was one of the incorporators and as well as Pastor Kollie Jallah. We were all in Nigeria living and working together there as refugees, so their names were placed on the legal CAN-Liberia documents.” 

According to Eric, in 2006 when he was on his way to America, he took the legal paper works of Change Agent Network-Liberia and gave it to Pastor Jallah, who was acting at the time as the Country Representative of Change Agent Network Liberia. 

“In 2010 when Ellen opened the LBR and LRA, all NGOs in the country were supposed to go to the LBR and have their names registered in the government’s computer system because what we did at Foreign Affairs was not computerized. So, when he (Jallah) went there, he decided not to register the company that we brought from Nigeria. Pastor Jallah created his own NGO.

He removed some people’s names from the board of the original NGO and put his own people’s names there on the document as incorporators. He also put my name, Momo Ware, Roosevelt Woods, and one lady called Abigail Forkpa, as incorporators. He signed for every single one of us without our knowledge. I didn’t even know that the company that I started and brought to Liberia, the ownership had changed; I had no clue. He filed the document with the LBR with the same name – Change Agent Network Liberia. But he filed it in as the Board Chair and Incorporator of the Business. Which means that the ownership of my business has changed from me to him,” Eric said. 

According to him, he got to know about the alleged changes in 2020. "I was in Ganta working and I went to the bank to change certain things on one of the accounts and then I was told by the bank that I didn’t have the authority to change anything in that account. I was surprised and shook. I asked why and how. I told them that I am the owner of this business. They told me, ‘No, you are not the owner.’ I asked who was the owner and then they told me that they didn’t know but I should find out from the LBR. I later met with the LBR people and when they checked their computer that was when Pastor Kollie Jallah's name came up as the owner of the business, officially.”

According to him following that discovery and all the legal implications pertaining to using what Jallah had created, his legal team asked him to forget about CAN-Liberia and bring CAN-USA to Liberia, since it was his owned business, and he has not naturalized in America. "Bring your business home and registered it in the country. CAN-USA already has a board of directors, and you are the sole incorporator."

In the meantime, Eric also decided to register another NGO to also do the work that CAN-Liberia was registered to do. He called the new NGO, Opportunity Network Liberia.

Eric alleges that he took Pastor Jallah to the States twice and on the third occasion, “he vanished; he disappeared in thin air. As we speak, I don’t know which part of America Pastor Kollie Jallah is up to this moment. I have not heard from him in years; we are not in contact.” 

According to him, the folks at LRA advised him to get Pastor Jallah to come along with his passport and do an article of dissolution, and then after that the name Change Agent Network Liberia will become available to the public, and then if he wants to continue with that name, he could pick it up after paying all legal taxes and fees. 

“So, that was how I came up with the name Opportunity Network Liberia. Opportunity Network Liberia is working in Liberia as a place-holder name until we resolve this problem because we don’t want to shut down the much-needed educational and social-economic programs, we are running in the country to help Liberia move forward together. Shutting down our incredible work will certainly be devastating to so many families, young people, and children in the country.  So, that is the difference between Opportunity Network Liberia and Change Agent Network,” Eric said.

He wonders how was it possible for another person to register CAN when he had already done so few years earlier through the Foreign Ministry? 

“I am confused because before one registers such an organization with LBR, one is asked for several things including the passport copies of one's incorporators, articles of incorporation, and board resolution. Did Pastor Jallah show our passports to LBR?”

The CAN-USA CEO also stated that to resolve the matter, he had reached out to family members of Jallah since he couldn’t reach himself. “When Pastor Jallah’s sister, Jenneh got back to me, she told me that he had promised to call me. It’s been more than two years now he hasn’t called me,” he stated.  

Eric has meanwhile cautioned other people doing business in Liberia whether working with family members or outsiders, to pay keen attention to every detail of their business or project by being involved and engaged at all times with the operations of the company. 

George Thomas and Momo Ware, two of the original people, who have been there with CAN from Nigeria, spoke of how Pastor Jallah allegedly used Momo’s name, too as incorporator, unbeknownst to himself to get the document through the government. According to him, Pastor Jallah allegedly signed for every one of the incorporators.

Meanwhile, all efforts to get Pastor Kollie Jallah himself to respond to these allegations proved futile. However, other relatives of his were reached. A male relative, Kortu Jallah, divulged that he had spoken with Kollie about these allegations and that his brother, Kollie, had told him that a few years ago he (Kollie) had sat with Eric and told him (Eric) that he was now moving on his own from CAN. “So, I have been out of CAN for years now how come Eric is saying that I am the owner,” Kortu quotes his brother as saying. He also said that Eric and his brother had come a very long way as good friends, beginning from the refugee camp in Nigeria and so it is only best that the matter is resolved.