By J. Peter S. Dennis, dennisrealone@gmail.com
GBARNGA, Liberia- As the Press Union of Liberia *PUL) dispute drags on, the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court here in the central Bong County has granted the Julius Kanubah legal team’s prayer for stay order on all activities regarding the pending PUL inauguration.
The case is expected to be heard on Monday, December 19, 2022 in here in Gbarnga.
Court’s stay order
The controversial inauguration is scheduled for December 23, 2022 in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, but won’t hold pending the outcome of the petition for Declaratory Judgment, His Honor Cllr. J. Boimah Kontoe ruled on Thursday, December 15, 2022 in opened court.
On December 2, 2022, the presiding justice in Chambers of the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Yusuf Kaba mandated the 9th Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County to resume jurisdiction over the matter. The committee maintains that it is not a parallel court, and any action of the committee that centers on mediation and arbitration will have no binding effect over the litigation process.
The committee expressed serious disappointment that since its constitution by the outgoing PUL’s outgoing president Coffey, it has received no clearly defined terms of reference (TOR) on the nature and scope of its work. The committee regrets that its constitution was restricted to a press release without any formal communication to its members that has constrained its work.
The Independent Media Stakeholders Committee says this action on the part of Mr. Coffey was most likely intended to buy time, and undermine the work of the committee, a situation that complicates the matter the further.
Justice Kaba summoned the contending parties based on a petition filed by the team Julius Kanubah for a writ of prohibition against results of the controversial in Gbarnga on November 18, 2022 that declared incumbent Vice President Daniel Nyankonah President of the PUL.
Mr. Nyakonah got 333 votes, while his opponent Julius Kanubah got 15 votes for the presidency. On the other hand, Bettie Johnson Mbayo accumulated 311 votes while her contender got 21 votes. A total of 346 persons participated in the process with 2 invalid votes. The PUL is said to have a membership of over 1,400. Thus, the petition for a writ of prohibition was filed shortly after the process.Supreme Court Comes Down With Prohibition Writ, After PUL’s Controversial Election – News Public Trust
Team Kanubah’s legal counsels have since sought interpretation in the recent PUL disputed and midnight elections in Gbarnga, Bong County.
Since the conduct of what is believed to be “handpicked election”, there have been several controversies including the questioning of the PUL’s integrity.
It can be recalled, the Action for Declaratory Judgment along with a motion for Preliminary Injunction was filed by the National Campaign Management Team of Julius Kanubah for the PUL presidency.
In the petition, Team Kanubah argued against the conduct of the PUL 2022 elections because of several violations of the Union’s Constitution in relation to the Membership Registered.
The violations, Team Kanubah insisted, amounted to acts of electoral fraud, because the PUL Full Membership Register (Voter Roll) was neither published on time nor disaggregated as required under Article 10 Section 7 of the PUL Constitution.
Further, the Full Membership Register (Voter Roll) was flooded with non-journalists and ineligible members or voters including interns, cub-reporters, criminals, high school students, and janitors.