CENTAL Demands Full Compliance to Supreme Court Ruling; Calls Out Government for Disregard of Rule of Law

Monrovia, Liberia: In condemnation of executive inaction and legislative defiance, the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL) has accused President Joseph Nyuma Boakai of undermining the Supreme Court’s Wednesday, April 23, 2025, ruling by maintaining ties with the self-styled majority bloc led by Representative Richard Nagbe Koon.

The civil society watchdog organization demands the full restoration of Speaker Jonathan Fonati Koffa’s authority and warns that continued defiance of the judiciary signals a grave erosion of constitutional order and democratic governance in Liberia.

By: Abraham Sylvester Panto

Reading the statement at CENTAL headquarters in Monrovia on Monday, April 28, 2025, Program Manager Gerald Yeakula lashed out at lawmakers for abandoning legislative responsibilities in pursuit of a political coup against Speaker Koffa, while branding the national budget’s hasty ten-day passage and the fire outbreak at the Capitol as troubling signs of dysfunction and disregard for due process.

“A brazen scheme to unseat Speaker Koffa… legislative recklessness… a symbol of national decay… Defiance of the Supreme Court is defiance of the Republic itself,” Manager Yeakula asserted.

CENTAL denounced the refusal of Representative Richard Koon and his bloc to acknowledge the Supreme Court’s authority and blasted President Boakai for what it called an alarming reluctance to sever ties with a faction whose legislative actions have already been declared null and void by the country’s highest court.

“President Boakai must restore Speaker Koffa’s rights and sever all ties with the Koon bloc until the Supreme Court says otherwise… There can be no shortcuts to the rule of law," CENTAL stated. "The President must lead by example or risk becoming complicit in the breakdown of constitutional order."

With the court having ruled that no quorum is legitimate without Speaker Koffa presiding, CENTAL dismissed as unconstitutional any collaboration with the Koon bloc and warned that the president’s continued engagement with the group amounts to an endorsement of legislative illegitimacy and judicial defiance.

The organization emphasized that, despite claims of governance necessity, there exists no legal justification for bypassing a legitimate Speaker and argued that compliance with the Court’s ruling is non-negotiable if Liberia is to uphold any shred of rule-based governance.

CENTAL slammed the legislature’s 39-year failure to craft rules that compel lawmaker attendance as a direct contributor to the ongoing crisis and maintained that Koon and his followers cannot remove a sitting speaker by deliberately avoiding session.

The group acknowledges Representative Koon Bloc’s Petition for Re-argument while stressing that until the court rules otherwise, its April 23 decision remains binding, final, and enforceable.

He further called on the Supreme Court to apply the same urgency to constitutional disputes as it does to electoral cases, citing judicial delay as a major enabler of the prolonged crisis.

Meanwhile, CENTAL demanded that President Boakai restore Speaker Koffa’s rights and privileges without hesitation, immediately cut all executive cooperation with the Koon bloc, and lead by example in upholding judicial independence and constitutional order.

The statement warned that any shortcuts around the rule of law will deepen institutional paralysis and place Liberia’s fragile democracy on a collision course with chaos.