Reports reaching FrontPage Africa says Chief Jallah Lone one of Liberia’s longest serving Paramount Chiefs is dead.  Unconfirmed reports say Chief Lone died early Tuesday in his home in Gbarpolu County.

Paying tribute to the Chief, former Information Minister in the Doe Government, Rev. Emmanuel Bowier, who knew the late Chief Lone, described him as an honest and straightforward old man.

In a telephone interview with FrontPage Africa late Tuesday evening, concerning the life of the deceased, Rev. Bowier told FPA that in 1964 his late father, Willie Bowier, who was then a Land Commissioner at the time, bought a parcel of land in Gbarpolu, but during the 1980 coup d’état that toppled the William R. Tolbert regime, some commissioners confiscated land in that area.

Rev. Bowier noted that after his return from exile, Chief Lone came to him and told him that his land was safe. He added that if Chief Lone had not been an honest man, he would have taken the land.

Chief Jallah Lone was seen as one of the bones behind the Charles Taylor regime. A year after the 2005 elections that brought the Unity Party led government to power; Chief Lone appeared on Star radio to divorce his relationship with the Former President and has since been seen as an eminent statesman.

When asked at the time as to who crowned Charles Taylor ‘Dahkpannah’, the Paramount Chief announced that Charles Taylor hijacked the Dahkpannah title. He then said due to the indictment of the former president for war crimes in The Hague, he (Jallah Lone) was left with no alternative but to strip Taylor and declared himself the holder.

Rev. Bowier recalled that a clinic was built in Gbarpolu County, which was named after the traditional leader. During the opening of the Bella Yella road He described the construction as an achievement for the Unity Party-led government, noting that since 1926, efforts to build roads in the area became an illusion.

Chief Lone believed that honesty is a secret of success for a career person and once said he successfully worked with ten Liberian presidents due to his unquestionable character. He is believed to have been over 106 years old.