MONROVIA – An adolescent passing by, joked yesterday, “Not even Jack Truck will make Richard Koon leave the job”. A pundit asks: “If courts decisions, let alone the country’s High Court’s, are not enough to establish calm and justice and separate people who have fallen in dispute, then what use is the Court’s existence in Liberia? Can we say we are a people of law – the rule of law?” Whatever the answers, the non-theoretical, real time ones, are coming from those who make the laws. It seems this is the case with the ruling Unity Party and their legislators in the House of Representatives, who don’t need the Court to decide matters of legal and constitutional bearings, but act in pursuit of their ego and power in settling disputes. They clinging to the Speakership of the House even though the Supreme Court, the final arbiter of justice in the land, says otherwise. Here is “Regime Speaker” Koon’s defiant statement responding to the Court’s judgment Wednesday, April 23.
The Leadership of the House of Representatives, claiming to be acting on the consensus of his colleagues, the Majority Bloc, has rejected in what he called the strongest term Judgment of the Supreme Court that Former Speaker Koffa “continues to be Speaker of the House of Representatives even though he was removed from that Office by a Resolution signed by fifty (50) members of the House of Representatives in full compliance with Article 49 of the Liberian Constitution and Rule 9(a) of the Rules of the House of Representatives, which separately requires that a Speaker, Deputy Speaker and any other elected officers of the House of Representatives shall be removed from office by a resolution of two-third (⅔) of the entire membership of the House of Representatives, which is forty-nine (49) of the seventy-three (73) members of the House of Representatives.
Koon said 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 and 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 of Representatives.
“It should also be recalled that no member of the House of Representatives, who signed the Resolution for the removal of Hon. Koffa from the Office of Speaker of the House of Representatives, ever filed a motion for reconsideration of that decision, as is provided for by Rule 17.4(q) of the Rules of the House. As such, this Resolution shall remain part of the records of the House of Representatives and no opinion or judgment of the Supreme Court can or will expunge or erase this Resolution from the annals of the House of Representatives,” the Majority Bloc Speaker said in a statement Wednesday.
Still claiming to be the Leadership of the House of Representatives, he “informs the Liberian public that in rejecting the Supreme Court’s atrocious and audacious violation of the SEPRATION OF POWER doctrine and attempting to dictate to the Honorable House of Representatives who shall be its Speaker, Plenary under his gavel shall continue to conduct the business of the House of Representatives without any deference or regard to the Supreme Court’s Opinion and Judgment.
It said the Supreme Court decision is most unfortunate, but warranted under the circumstances.
He added: “The Leadership of the House also informs the Liberian public that under no circumstance shall Plenary allow Hon. Koffa to preside over any Sitting or Meeting of the House of Representatives, he having been duly removed from the Office of Speaker of the House of Representatives and Hon. Richard Nagbe Koon, Sr. Was elected and inducted into office as Speaker of the House of Representatives pursuant to Rule 10.1 of the Rules of the House of Representatives.”
“Furthermore, even though today’s Opinion and Judgment of the Supreme Court attempts to subvert, undermine and disrupt the House of Representatives and the governance of the Republic of Liberia, the House of Representatives shall continue to conduct the business of the Liberian people without any interruption and all laws, actions and other conduct of the House of Representatives, including enactment of the 2025 National Budget into law, shall continue to have the full force and effect of law.”
Koon said his leadership over the House of Representatives assures the public that it is considering whatever legal and/or political right and recourse are available to Plenary; and when that determination is made, Plenary shall vigorously and assiduously pursue any such legal or political rights to protect the sanctity and integrity of the House of Representatives and secure the proper and effective governance of the Republic of Liberia.
He said: “The Leadership of the House of Representatives reiterates that today’s Opinion and Judgment of the Supreme Court violates a cardinal principle of constitutional governance; which is the SEPARATION OF POWERS doctrine; and Plenary shall never ever succumb to any over-reaching and intrusion into the internal affairs of the House of Representatives where there is no clear violation of the Constitution.
“Surprisingly, the Supreme Court has today deviated from its own age-old standard not to delve into the internal affairs of the FIRST BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT unless there is a clear and unequivocal violation of the Constitution.”
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