Opposition politician and a former political ally of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Mr. Alexander Benedict Cummings, has called on the President to “comply with and adhere to the Supreme Court Ruling”
Cummings, who is the political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), wrote on his Facebook page that there is “no room for misinterpretation” of the law.
On Wednesday, April 23rd, the Supreme Court ruled in the Bill of Information case filed before it by the embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives, Cllr. Jonathan Fonati Koffa. In the Court’s ruling, it affirmed and upheld among other things that Koffa is still the legitimate Speaker of the House and that everything that the controversial Speaker, Mr. Richard Nagbe Koon and his colleagues in the “majority bloc” have done is “ultra vires.”
Responding to the Court’s ruling, President Boakai said, “Yesterday (April 23, 2025), the Supreme Court of Liberia, our nation’s highest arbiter of justice, delivered its ruling on the Bill of Information relating to the ongoing impasse in the House of Representatives. As President of the Republic, I acknowledge the ruling of the Supreme Court.
“However, we must all note that the House of Representatives’ problem remains unresolved.
Accordingly, my government has already initiated broad consultations with relevant national stakeholders to determine the most appropriate and constitutionally sound path forward. We have actively involved our traditional and other national leaders in addressing this matter.
In doing so, we remain fully committed to preserving the sanctity of our democracy and the principle of three separate but coordinate branches of government.”
To the anger of his critics including Mr. Cummings, the President went further to state clearly that his Administration “will continue to work with the quorum that will ensure the full functioning of our government.” The quorum group he’s referring to is the one headed by the controversial Speaker Richard Nagbe Koon.
And, the controversial Speaker, Mr. Koon, stated that Koffa has been removed from the office and it was done according to their internal rules and the constitution.
“It should be recalled that Hon. Koffa was removed from the Office of Speaker of the House of Representatives for reason of corruption, conflict of interest and mismanagement, which are prohibited by Article 90 of the Constitution and Rules 44 & 45 of the House of Representatives; and he was granted due process consistent with the 2007 Opinion of the Supreme Court in the case, Snowe v. House Representatives.”
The controversial Speaker insisted that Cllr. Koffa had been lawfully removed by a two-thirds majority of the full membership of the House in accordance with Article 49 of the Constitution and Rule 9(a) of the House’s own rules.
So, responding to what the President and Koon had said, Mr. Cummings indicated that “the law is clear—37 to elect, 49 to remove. No room for misinterpretation.”
According to him, the “majority bloc” has not had the numbers, so their actions (and the Executive’s support of them) are legally flawed.
“If they get the numbers, they should follow due process and remove the Speaker properly. If they are determined to remove the speaker they elected, then they should have pursued this approach instead of trying to subvert the rules. It’s not too late for that if that is what they want to do.
That said, the Speaker clearly lacks majority political support in the HOR.”
He further accused the President of failing to resolve the impasse, which he acknowledged is “a political issue”; adding: “The President has failed—to broker a solution. But again, it’s not too late for that. The Speaker appears open to a dialogue, but “the bloc”, emboldened by the President’s actions, refuses to engage.”
“Legal and political issues are being confused, perhaps intentionally. They need to be treated separately to move forward. In the meantime, we look disorganized on the world stage, and the president appears indecisive or weak.
“The president should have brokered an outcome where he could have clearly stated without equivocation, that he would comply with the Supreme Court Ruling. He did Not. There is still an opportunity to resolve this politically and/or legally and I hope discussions are happening behind the scenes to do so. That would be in the best interest of our country. Not following the Rule of Law is NOT an Option.”
