PHOTO: ANC leader Alexander Cumming now let off the hook
Alexander Cummings, the political leader of the opposition Alternative National Congress (ANC) is now a free man, after the state dropped forgery charges against him and two of his top executives, who were accused of altering with the controversial CPP framework documents, as Garmah Never Lomo reports.
Cummings was months ago dragged to court by Benoni Urey and his All Liberian Party (ALP) with the backing of Joseph Boakai’s Unity Party, and Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence’s faction of the Liberty Party who earlier withdrew from the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), leaving Cummings and his ANC alone in the erstwhile four-party opposition coalition.
Liberia’s Solicitor General Saymah Syrenius Cephus in an exclusive interview after the Supreme Court’s ruling said, there is no need to continue with the forgery and criminal conspiracy case at the magisterial court, because the Supreme Court has spoken and Article 2 of the 1986 constitution gave the high court three cardinal responsibilities.
The ANC leader has repeated denied the charges and dismissed the case as a political conspiracy against him led by the CDC government. But the government has since denied his claim.
Further explaining why the charges against Cummings have been dropped, Cllr. Cephas said that the disputed CPP framework document which has the words resign and withdraw, in his mind, they are synonymous in terms of content and context.
“No legal basis under section 8.5(2) to continue the prosecution of the case against Mr. Alexander B. Cummings and others,” he added.
According to the Solicitor General, no one within the CPP suffered any injury in the case involving the ANC Political Leader and his co-conspirators and he has therefore discontinued with the prosecution of the case at the Monrovia City court.
Cllr. Cephus disclosed that the Supreme Court’s ruling has binding effect on everyone, whether directly or indirectly.
“I have therefore dismissed charges against Mr. Cummings and others without prejudice to the state and Mr. Cummings is no now free man he narrated,“ the Solicitor General stated.