Boakai Losses in nomination Case, High Court Terms Action as Unlawful!

By: Rachel Saykiemein

Capitol Hill: The Supreme Court of Liberia says President Joseph Nyumah Boakai decision to replace tenure officials at the Liberia National Lottery Authority (NLA), Governance Commission (GC), National Identification Registry (NIR) and Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA), is unlawful. 

In the highly anticipated ruling on Wednesday, the Court said President Boakai’s actions were not in line with the law and that those occupying the four positions in question were not granted due process. According to the court, such action is in violation of the act that established said institutions and positions.

In its ruling, the court further noted that President Boakai's nomination contradicts article 89 of the 1986 constitution which gives the legislature the power to establish Autonomous Agencies.

The court ruled: "The Legislature acted within the scope of its authority in enacting laws for its governance including the provisions of tenure positions”.

According to the court, the Executive did not state any constitutional or statutory conditions or cause for which Garrison Yealue, Edwina Zackpah, Andrew Peters and Reginald Nagbe were being stripped off their positions.

Article 56 (a )states: "All cabinet ministers, deputy and assistant cabinet ministers, ambassadors, ministers and consuls, superintendents of counties and other government officials, both military and civilian, appointed by the President pursuant to this Constitution shall hold their offices at the pleasure of the President"

President Boakai reliance on article 56(a) is not enough reason to appoint individuals to already occupied positions, said the court, noting, "They are not occupying their respective positions only because a stay order was imposed by the Justice in Chambers and not by any magnanimous gestures by the Executive Branch of government”. 

The high court ruled confirming the alternative writ of prohibition issued by Justice-in-Chambers, Yusif Kaba, thereby granting the peremptory writ prayed for by Yealue, Zackpah, Peters and Reginald Nagbe adding; tenure position is not in contravention of the president's appointing power. 

"Wherefore, and in view of the Foregoing, the alternative writ of prohibition issued by the Justice in Chambers is hereby affirmed and the peremptory writ prayed for granted” said the Supreme Court ruling.

It can be recalled that Yealue, Zackpah, Nagbe and Peters of the Governance Commission, National Identification Registry, Liberia Telecommunications Authority, and Liberia Lottery Authority, filed a petition requesting the high court to put a halt on the nomination of president Boakai.

Meanwhile, the Supreme has cancelled the request of Professor Wilson Tarpeh to retain his position as Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency.

According to the court, Prof. Tarpeh's ascendency was not in line with the art that established the EPA noting that former President George Weah did not proceed rightly in the nomination process. 

The ruling by the court is seen by legal pundits as in confines with the law and calls on President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to accord the aforementioned individuals due process.