Liberia: Senate Halts Dealings with House Amid Supreme Court’s Stay Order - FrontPageAfrica

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MONROVIA –The Leadership of the Liberian Senate has taken a decision to halt legislative dealings with the House of Representatives in the wake of the intensifying leadership crisis at the Lower House.

By Obediah Johnson, obediah.johnson@frontpageafricaonline.com

For over a month now, the House of Representatives has been rocked with a leadership crisis over the removal of its Speaker, Fonati Koffa.

Over 45 lawmakers, under the banner “Majority Bloc” have been gathering in the Joint Chamber of the National Legislature, claiming to have removed Speaker Fonati Koffa for alleged acts of corruption, nepotism and conflict of interest.

They claimed to have solicited 50 signatures to remove the Speaker. On the other hand, Speaker Koffa has denied the allegations levied against him by his colleagues.

He and his supporters have also failed to raise a quorum of 37 lawmakers to conduct normal legislative businesses of the House.

As a result of the impasse, the Liberian Senate has been uncertain over which side of the aisle of the House to do legislative business with.

Though the executive branch has been transacting business with the “Majority Bloc” as evidenced by the appearance of three of its officials and the submission of the draft National Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 to the group, the Senate has been playing a smart political ball game not to get involved in the matter.

Last week, Senators took a decision to separately scrutinize the draft National Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 as a result of the leadership crisis at the House. The Senate Plenary mandated its Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Budget to peruse the draft national budget independently and await on their colleagues from the House to settle their impasse.

But there are reports that though the leadership crisis at the House of Representatives has been taken to the Supreme Court by embattled Speaker Koffa, many Senators, especially independent and those from the ruling party have been working behind closed doors with the “Majority Bloc”.

Senator Joseph Jallah of Lofa County raised an alarm over the issue during a regular session in the Chamber of the Senate on Tuesday, November 26. 

As evidenced to some Senators working with the Majority Bloc, the Senate last week passed a bill to establish an Independent Seaport and Inland Ports Regulatory Authority, aimed at promoting sustainable development and regulation of port operations across the country. 

The bill seeks to enhance the regulation of Liberia’s seaports and inland ports, ensuring safer, more transparent, and orderly operations. It also aims to support the sustainable development of port facilities and services. 

The Senate’s decision followed recommendations from its Joint Committee on Public Corporations and Judiciary, Human Rights, Claims, and Petitions. 

In a related development, the Senate also passed the Seaport Decentralization and Modernization Bill, which aligns with the government’s decentralization strategy. This initiative focuses on restructuring the management and operations of Liberia’s four major seaports—Freeport of Monrovia, Buchanan Port, Greenville Port, and Harper Port—by transitioning from centralized oversight by the National Port Authority (NPA) to autonomous management. 

The document passed by the Senate was submitted to the Secretariat of the House of Representatives, headed by its Chief Clerk Mildred Sayon.

Madam Sayon has not been spotted on the grounds of the Capitol Building in Monrovia since the leadership crisis at the House of Representatives intensified.

As a result of this, the draft bill submitted by the Senate Secretary Nanborlor Singbeh reportedly landed in the hands of the House Deputy Clerk Comicks Chea. But it has not yet been established who instructed Singbeh to submit the draft bill to the “Majority Bloc”, but normally bills passed by Senators or Representatives are sent to either the Senate or House for concurrence, with a direct mandate from the Presiding Officer for the Secretary or Chief Clerk to act in accordance with the decision taken by the Plenaries.

Chea and several other clerical staff at the House of Representatives have been working with the “Majority Bloc” in the Joint Chamber.

But the decision taken by Speaker Koffa and his supporters to file separate writs at the Supreme Court has claimed the attention of the leadership of the Liberian Senate.

The leadership of the Senate took a decision early Tuesday, November 26 to avoid submitting legislative documents to both the “Majority Bloc” and embattled Speaker Koffa’s side of the House of Representatives until the Supreme Court can rule on the matter.

The latest decision taken by the Senate has the propensity of stalling the passage of the draft National Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 and other legislative instruments that would be submitted by the executive and other legislators.

The return of legislative dealings and transactions to normalcy between both the House of Representatives and the Liberian Senate would now have to wait on the ruling from the Full Bench of the Supreme Court of Liberia to the writ of mandamus filed by Speaker Koffa and his supporters against the decision taken by the “Majority Bloc” to amongst other things boycott and renege on holding sessions in the House’s regular Chamber.