MONROVIA: Amidst the controversies surrounding tenured positions, specifically on attempts by the Joseph Boakai administration to de-tenurize all tenurized positions, the Supreme Court of Liberia will today, Wednesday, April 23, 2024 draw the curtain on the matter as it sits at 11:00 am to give final determination on the matter.
The anticipated final judgment by the Apex Court arose out of the petitions for prohibition filed by some officials of government who were removed from, or asked to quit, their respective positions and decided to seek relief with the court against the action of the government to liquidate their appointments.
The Supreme Court had placed a stay order on the government not to go ahead with further action concerning the tenured positions until a legal interpretation and determination is made on whether the government was right to effectuate the removal or the occupants have legal right to continue serving in their positions until the expiration of their various terms.
Some of those who were affected by what they called “illegal removal” included the Chairman of the Governance Commission (GC), Garrison D. Yealue, Reginald K. Nagbe, Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Edwina C. Zackpah, Chairperson of the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA) and Prof. Wilson K Tarpeh, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The affected officials severally petitioned the Supreme Court of Liberia for a Writ of Prohibition to stop the Boakai government from removing them from their respective offices in consideration that they serve for tenures.
Reports from the Temple of Justice, the seat of the Liberian Judiciary, indicated that the Chief Justice of Liberia, Her Honor Sie-A-Nyene G. Yuoh, has said judgments in these cases will have significant implications and are eagerly anticipated by the parties involved and the public.
The decisions, the Chief Justice said, will be pivotal in shaping legal interpretations and providing clarity on the long lingering issues presented in these petitions for writ of prohibition.
Legal pundits and the parties involved as well as the general public are urged to attend the sessions where the apex court will have to make a determination on this very sensitive issue that has dominated the polity for some time now.
The Supreme Court’s rulings will be closely watched as they are expected to set precedents
and clarify legal positions on the much-debated tenure matters at hand.
According to a legal analyst, the opinions of the Supreme Court in these contentious issues will go down as precedence for reference in the future.
It can be recalled that the Boakai-led government has named replacements of these officials to the various offices occupied by the petitioners and even prevented them from the offices as representatives of the current regime have already been seated into those tenure positions.
The Government contended that those removed from office violated their tenures when they openly and actively campaigned for the former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) against the code of conduct of Liberia, although the affected officials denied the allegations.
Consequently, the aggrieved tenure officials removed from their offices ran to the Supreme Court for relief and interpretation to the tenure laws of the land.
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