Residents of the capital Monrovia woke up on Wednesday morning to see thick black smoke and flames rising from the country’s Capitol building, the seat of Liberia’s Legislature.
The flames destroyed the entire joint chambers of the legislature, but no-one was in the building at the time and there has been no confirmation of the reason for the blaze or if it was an arson attack.
The incident has sparked a major debate across the country following allegations that a protest called by Janjay Baikpeh, the former superintendent of Grand Bassa county and member of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), former president George Weah’s party, may have incited actions that eventually led to an arson attack on the building.
These claims have not been substantiated so far. However, the grievances cited by the protest organisers, including Baikpeh, appear to align with claims made against the Joseph Boakai-led government by Representative Frank Saah Foko, representing District 9 in Montserrado County, who coincidentally had uploaded a video on Facebook in which he said: “If they want us to burn the chambers, we will burn it.”
Boakai’s condemnation of the fire incident comes amidst claims of the CDC’s manoeuvres against several of the government’s policies and actions considered a direct affront to the party.
Vowing that the government would not tolerate acts of violence and destruction, Boakai appeared to suggest that suspicion of arson was not off the cards . “We’re not going to accept this. “We’re asking the Minister of Justice and all the security apparatus to investigate this to the letter. People who are culprits, we will deal with them. We will set the tone for all other people who, when they get angry, destroy. We’re not going to allow this,” he asserted.
The country’s police chief, Gregory Coleman said: “Representative Foko made a threat that he would burn the joint Chambers and just a day after, it was burned. So he needs to clarify his statement.”
Foko’s outburst followed strenuous moves by his colleagues both from the ruling party, the Unity Party (UP) and his CDC, allegedly supported by President Boakai, to impeach the embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives, Jonathan Fonati Koffa, owing to a host of allegations of violations of financial integrity and impropriety.
The move against Koffa’s leadership of the House eventually resulted in a majority of legislators electing Richard Koon of the UP, representing District 11 in Montserrado County, as the new Speaker on November 21.
Matters took an even more dramatic turn when President Joseph Boakai invited the embattled Koffa to a meeting and asked him to resign as Speaker. The president reportedly told the justice minister to recognise the majority bloc and their new speaker.
The Liberia FrontPage Africa publication reported that the Senate also recognised Koon as the new speaker.
This decision did not deter Koffa and his supporters who insisted that they did not recognise the election of Koon, citing technicalities that the numbers of those legislators who voted to impeach him were below the thresh-hold of a two-thirds majority. He insisted that his resignation is not on the cards if the disenchanted lawmakers do not reach the constitutional 49 to remove him.
Representative J. Marvin Cole, chair of the committee on rules, order, and administration and a member of the minority bloc that supported the embattled Speaker Koffa, told the VOA that Koffa is still the Speaker in line with the constitution.
The group supporting the impeachment of the Speaker has since refused to sit under his gavel, by convening a separate conference, a move he has branded as a violation of the law,
Moves to impeach him led to confrontations, with his supporters who barricaded the Chambers of the House in order to prevent those supporting his impeachment from holding session. When these members attempted to relocate to another room, Koffa’s supporters surreptitiously removed the chairs under the pretext that renovation work had commenced.
After this first incident, his colleagues retreated to another room in the Capitol, but this move was quickly stalled again as his key supporters, Representatives Marvin Cole, Eugene Kollie and Edward Papie Flomo, reportedly led a mob and stormed the venue using weapons, including teargas cannisters, to disperse members. The action was captured on video and went viral on social media.
The situation got more complicated by a ruling of the Supreme Court calling on the House to return to status quo ante, suggesting the return of Koffa as Speaker, and to cease all previous actions and sittings.
Koffa and his supporters have pointed to the Supreme Court ruling as vindication of their position that his impeachment is unconstitutional and would not be accepted.
After the election of Koon as the new Speaker, Koffa approached the Apex Court again, praying that it declare the actions of purported Speaker Koon and Members of the Majority Bloc “null and void ab initio” and sessions, hearings, or decisions are in violation of the Court’s Ruling and Final Judgment, ultra vires and unconstitutional.
He and his supporters also prayed that the Supreme Court further determine that actions of Koon and Deputy Speaker Thomas Fallah, and other Members of the Majority Bloc in defying the Court’s Ruling and Final Judgment, be declared ultra vires and unconstitutional.
Koffa’s refusal to step down as Speaker has been backed by the leadership of his CDC, including former President Weah. They have warned members of the party in the House that they are treading a dangerous path by opting to join the ruling party in removing Koffa as the Speaker who is also their member.
Some members of the CDC have said that those legislators actively behind his impeachment, known as “Rescue Lawmakers” are supporting the removal of Koffa because “they want the seat for the smooth operation of their administration and they will do everything possible to collaborate with anybody seeking to remove the Speaker.”
Commentators say the support for this move by CDC lawmakers who also signed the resolution to remove the Speaker, may ensure that the CDC never get that position again, as “the ruling party will go for it and get it.”
One of the leading CDC members who has taken the fall for Koffa’s removal is Deputy Speaker, Thomas Fallah, representing Lofa County in the House. The party, led by Weah, announced his expulsion for his involvement in what the party called the “illegal” removal of the Speaker.
CDC National Chairman, Janga Kowo, speaking to the VOA, said the CDC reaffirmed its recognition of Koffa as the legitimate Speaker of the 55th Legislature
Explaining the government’s position on the Supreme Court ruling calling for a return to status quo ante, the Legal Advisor to the President, Cllr. Oswald Tweh, stated, “My reading of the Court’s opinion and the analysis made above, dictate what constitutes a valid, legal and Constitutional plenary of the House of Representatives, as quoted in the court’s opinion, bring me to the conclusion that the majority members of the House of Representatives met the Constitutional requirements explicated by the court to hold session and take decisions consistent with the laws of the country and the rules of the House of Representatives.
Considered an extension of the current opposition to the removal of Koffa, the national protest called by Baikpeh and others, dubbed “White Tuesday: A Day for Justice,” according to its organisers, sought “the restoration of constitutional order in the House of Representatives.”
Baikpeh outlined what he described as key issues driving his objection against the Boakai administration, accusing it of spending over $5 million to destabilise the House of Representatives, paralysing its constitutional functions. Baikpeh did not give any evidence to back his claim.
He also cited rising unemployment and poverty, and increased costs of mobile data and call services, affecting already struggling Liberians, and the lavish lifestyles of government officials “while ordinary citizens face hunger and deprivation, escalating ritualistic killings and unresolved violent crimes as well as drug smuggling and rising insecurity across the country.”
He alleged that the administration was gradually becoming noted for police brutality, including the murder of peaceful citizens, corruption, and governance failures, Illegal dismissals of civil servants and tenure officials, mismanagement of public funds, neglect of critical public services, and lack of accountability for government officials accused of corruption.
Many say Baikpeh’s protest was mainly an attempt to open another front outside parliament in the CDC’s confrontation with the Boakai government, asking the logic behind such far-reaching allegations against a government that has barely been in power for a year.
Pundits say Baikpeh’s, and other CDC members’ dissent has been triggered by the pressure on former CDC government officials following President Boakai’s anti-corruption probe.
One such move was his executive order, on March 5, establishing the Office of Assets Recovery, which was followed by the announcement of a task force to crack down on corruption and try to retrieve stolen funds, initiating processes leading to the location, recovery, and retrieval – through criminal prosecutions and civil litigations – of public resources and properties that have been illegally acquired or converted to private use during the Weah administration.
The CDC strongly objected to what it described as an all-out war against its former officials. The party’s National Secretary General and former mayor of Monrovia, Jefferson Koijee, said “any attempt to probe alleged acts of corruption committed in the CDC administration is witch-hunt.”
Weah had also criticised President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and the UP for charging and jailing some of his ex-officials for alleged corruption, claiming that it is clearly a political move intended to target the CDC. He described the government’s action as a “callous attempt to undermine the rule of law and security of the state”.
Weah’s criticism was in response to The Monrovia City Court on July 29, jailing of former Liberia Solicitor General Cllr. Nyanti Tuan, the National Security Advisor to Weah, Jefferson Karmohr and former Controller of the Financial Intelligence Agency, D. Moses P. Cooper, for alleged acts of economic sabotage and theft.
The feud between the opposition CDC and the ruling UP appears to be increasing, following the fire incident. While the CDC insists that the UP has initiated a witch-hunt against its former officials and is set on wiping all traces of its imprints in government, the UP says its actions are intended to rectify what many Liberians have described as a legacy of graft and poor leadership left behind by the CDC.
How this plays out will depend on an assessment by Liberians of the transparency and effectiveness of the Boakai-led government’s policies and actions.
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