Commercial Court Orders NOCAL, Finance Ministry Sealed Over $764,762 Debt
The Executive Mansion in Monrovia (file photo, 2009), illustrative of Liberia's government institutions. Photo: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Liberia's Commercial Court ordered the National Oil Company and the Ministry of Finance sealed after they failed to pay a $764,762 judgment owed to two former NOCAL executives, and held the state oil firm's finance chief in contempt.
Commercial Court Chief Judge Eva Mappy Morgan ordered the closure and sealing of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning on September 23, 2026, after the two institutions failed to pay a court-awarded judgment of US$764,762. The judge directed the court's sheriff to close the two institutions, seal their entrances and remove occupants pending payment.
The debt traces back to severance claims filed by two former NOCAL executives, Vida A. Mensah, the company's former Vice President of Administration, and Cllr. Idella Cooper-Shannon, a former board member, following NOCAL's restructuring in 2015. Each had initially sought roughly US$85,000 after rejecting reduced severance offers, but years of litigation and accumulated interest and penalties raised the combined court award to US$764,762.
NOCAL's Vice President for Finance and Investment and Chief Financial Officer, Emmanuel Azango, was held in contempt of court and kept on the court's bench for more than two hours, where he was informed the court was demanding payment of 25 percent of the obligation. Azango told the court that the Ministry of Finance should handle payment, describing the debt as "an old obligation" rather than a current NOCAL liability.
As of this writing, the judgment remains unpaid, and it is unclear whether the institutions will settle in full, negotiate a payment arrangement with the former executives, or face further enforcement action. Neither NOCAL nor the Ministry of Finance had issued a public statement on the matter at the time of this report. Liberia Today will follow up on how the dispute is resolved.