Monrovia – The Solicitor General of the Republic of Liberia Cllr. Daku Mulbah has cautioned citizens against running to the ECOWAS Court without taking advantage of the court proceedings in Liberia.
According to him, many citizens turn to the regional court without following the court process which is putting a lot of financial challenges to the government.
“When individuals or group of people sue the government, we will have to defend the image of the government which cause government lots of finances and instead of us focusing on the cases that are within the country, we have to leave for ECOWAS Court and as a result, the case will be squashed.”
Cllr. Mulbah said that there are lots of domestic cases that are supposed to be addressed but because they have to defend the country overseas, the manpower to handle to those cases at home is often split.
Speaking Wednesday, Cllr. Mulbah disclosed that there are currently ten cases of which five have been heard and two ruled upon at the ECOWAS Court.
“It is important to note that there are issues that we have come to find out in these places, people are flee to the ECOWAS Court to institute actions when indeed some of these actions are very much unnecessary as just shown to you in these cases where government spend lots of resources to go in defense of these matters only to find out that no rights have been violated and we think that this has to be discouraged ”.
He said they are taking a position to repeal the provision of the law where issues pending court actions in a country cannot be taken to the ECOWAS Court and that such proposal will be discussed in the next Head of States meeting.
He noted that it has a negative implication on the image of the country. “Once there is a lawsuit against the country although it might not be merit-based it presents the country as one that does not respect human rights. Cllr. Daku Mulbah