The Speaker of Liberia’s House of Representatives, Edwin Snowe and a handful of lawmakers have now agreed with majority members of the House to use the Unity Conference Center in Virginia outside Monrovia as temporary seat of the legislature.
The agreement was reached Wednesday when they met at the capitol building in Monrovia under the gavel of Speaker Snowe and passed a resolution accepting Virginia. Snowe and the minority have been sitting at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion rejecting the Virginia venue where majority lawmakers met recently and obtained 43 votes to remove him as Speaker.
During a brief news conference yesterday, Speaker Snowe said he and his minority group will attend session in Virginia this Thursday. It quotes Snowe as saying the move to Virginia should not be seen as a sign of weakness but strength to move Liberia forward.
The Speaker told the news conference that as much as he and his Monrovia colleagues were on the side of the law, they could not disobey the advice of prominent people.
He commended women groups, prominent people in the society, the U.S. government and traditional leaders for their efforts in resolving the crisis.
Upon his arrival in Virginia, Mr. Snowe is expected to preside over the session, in which many observers believe, lawmakers will again begin the process of removing him as Speaker. To do so, the legislators are expected to act in accordance with the due process of law, and as required by the constitution of Liberia.
A brief sampling of legal opinions conducted by senior writers and commentators of this website seem to indicate that the number of votes obtained recently to remove Snowe could shrink as a result of behind-the-scene maneuverings by the embattled speaker and his handful of followers. The legal implications of this latest move by the minority lawmakers and Speaker Snowe are not yet fully determined, but some Diaspora observers see it as a positive sign towards extinguishing the constitution tension and moving the country forward.
The agreement was reached Wednesday when they met at the capitol building in Monrovia under the gavel of Speaker Snowe and passed a resolution accepting Virginia. Snowe and the minority have been sitting at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion rejecting the Virginia venue where majority lawmakers met recently and obtained 43 votes to remove him as Speaker.
During a brief news conference yesterday, Speaker Snowe said he and his minority group will attend session in Virginia this Thursday. It quotes Snowe as saying the move to Virginia should not be seen as a sign of weakness but strength to move Liberia forward.
The Speaker told the news conference that as much as he and his Monrovia colleagues were on the side of the law, they could not disobey the advice of prominent people.
He commended women groups, prominent people in the society, the U.S. government and traditional leaders for their efforts in resolving the crisis.
Upon his arrival in Virginia, Mr. Snowe is expected to preside over the session, in which many observers believe, lawmakers will again begin the process of removing him as Speaker. To do so, the legislators are expected to act in accordance with the due process of law, and as required by the constitution of Liberia.
A brief sampling of legal opinions conducted by senior writers and commentators of this website seem to indicate that the number of votes obtained recently to remove Snowe could shrink as a result of behind-the-scene maneuverings by the embattled speaker and his handful of followers. The legal implications of this latest move by the minority lawmakers and Speaker Snowe are not yet fully determined, but some Diaspora observers see it as a positive sign towards extinguishing the constitution tension and moving the country forward.
However, today promises to be a dramatic day in the ongoing crisis concerning embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives, Edwin Snowe. He was removed earlier this year by a majority renegade group because they said his actions brought the House in disrepute. But the Liberian Supreme Court ruled that his removal was illegal.
On Wednesday, Speaker Snowe met with the renegade members and decided that in the interest of peace and political expediency, he would join them Thursday at their meeting place outside the capital, Monrovia. Civicus Barsi-giah is leader of the youth of District Five, Speaker Snowe’s constituency. He said the citizens plan to barricade the Speaker’s house to prevent him from meeting with the renegade members.
“The Honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives made a statement Wednesday on the national radio that he will be able to cross the bridge (Gabriel Tucker Bridge) to go and discuss issues with those renegades across the bridge, and we are saying no! It will not happen in the Fourth Republic because as far as we are concerned the Johnnie Lewis (Chief Justice) bench has given us justice that the Honorable Speaker is on the right side of the law. So he will not defy the right side of the law while he has been told that he is on the right side,” he said.
Barsi-giah said the renegade members should instead come to Speaker Snowe if they really want to resolve the matter. “In the interest of Liberia, then of course, they should be able to cross the bridge and value the rule of law because the rule of law has said that everything that will go on there will be illegal. We are not going there, and he will not go there.
“The Honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives made a statement Wednesday on the national radio that he will be able to cross the bridge (Gabriel Tucker Bridge) to go and discuss issues with those renegades across the bridge, and we are saying no! It will not happen in the Fourth Republic because as far as we are concerned the Johnnie Lewis (Chief Justice) bench has given us justice that the Honorable Speaker is on the right side of the law. So he will not defy the right side of the law while he has been told that he is on the right side,” he said.
Barsi-giah said the renegade members should instead come to Speaker Snowe if they really want to resolve the matter. “In the interest of Liberia, then of course, they should be able to cross the bridge and value the rule of law because the rule of law has said that everything that will go on there will be illegal. We are not going there, and he will not go there.
We will barricade every area and every zone so that he will not be able to penetrate and go anywhere. We will make sure he stays in his yard and be kept hostage so that the rule of law will be respected in the Republic of Liberia,” he said.
Barsi-giah said the Supreme Court ruled that the speaker’s removal was illegal, and that the renegade members had violated the Liberian constitution.
“The Johnnie Lewis bench did us justice by prevailing and telling us that those across there referred to as the renegade and rebels had gone against and defied the constitution. Besides and above all, it said they had created an affront against the constitution, and because they had done that, there is a contempt charge hanging over them. And in fact, the president of the Republic of Liberia also will be charged for contempt for defying the law,” he said.
Barsi-giah said Speaker Snowe should not join the renegade members at their meeting place in Virginia, outside Monrovia, because he said the Supreme Court has already ruled that whatever the renegade members do there is illegal.
He reiterated that the constituents of District Five, which is represented by Speaker Snowe, intended to barricade the speaker’s house to prevent him from meeting with the renegade members in Virginia, outside Liberia's capital, Monrovia.his supporters have threatened to smash his vehicle if any attempt is made to go to the Virginia conference
Barsi-giah said the Supreme Court ruled that the speaker’s removal was illegal, and that the renegade members had violated the Liberian constitution.
“The Johnnie Lewis bench did us justice by prevailing and telling us that those across there referred to as the renegade and rebels had gone against and defied the constitution. Besides and above all, it said they had created an affront against the constitution, and because they had done that, there is a contempt charge hanging over them. And in fact, the president of the Republic of Liberia also will be charged for contempt for defying the law,” he said.
Barsi-giah said Speaker Snowe should not join the renegade members at their meeting place in Virginia, outside Monrovia, because he said the Supreme Court has already ruled that whatever the renegade members do there is illegal.
He reiterated that the constituents of District Five, which is represented by Speaker Snowe, intended to barricade the speaker’s house to prevent him from meeting with the renegade members in Virginia, outside Liberia's capital, Monrovia.his supporters have threatened to smash his vehicle if any attempt is made to go to the Virginia conference
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