Monrovia – For the first time, the three opposition political leaders in persons of Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, Liberty Party; Mr. Benoni Urey, All Liberian Party (ALP) and Mr. Alexander B. Cummings, Alternative National Congress (ANC), were seen together in the Chamber of the Senate, where the ongoing impeachment trial of Associate Justice Kabineh M. Ja’neh is taking place.
Report by Henry Karmo, [email protected]
The trio had gone to witness ongoing proceedings of the impeachment trial by the Liberian Senate presided over by Chief Justice Francis Korkpor.
Prior to their Wednesday appearance, their individual political parties had in many public statements condemned the impeachment and called on senators to take a vote that would set the “right precedence”, which to them means voting against impeaching Justice Ja’neh.
Cummings, Urey and Brumskine all from the opposition bloc, witnessed the opening statements of the first witness, who was Representative Acarous Gray of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
Speaking to FrontPageAfrica, the LP former standard bearer, Cllr. Brumskine said, his heart bled for his country when he witnessed the Chief Justice presiding over a procedure in which the Chief Justice invoked Article 43. According to Cllr. Brumskine, who is a legal luminary, added: “the Constitution is being violated.”
“The last sentence of that provision says the House of Representatives and the Senate should pass a rule on how impeachment is conducted they haven’t done that.
“The worst thing I heard today was to hear one of the prosecuting lawyers, Cllr. Syrenius Cephas asking the Chief Justice to tell him how to question his witness. This tells you that this is a mess. This is not about Ja’neh; it is about the rule of law.”
According to Brumskine, he and his colleagues were at the Senate not in solidarity with Ja’neh or based on political party but because of the rule of law.
“We are concerned about our country; this process is a big mess. There is no legal or constitutional basis for this proceeding that is taking place. I challenge any lawyer in the country or in the Senate to debate with me on the constitutionality of this impeachment.”
Also speaking, the ANC leader buttressed what Cllr. Brumskine had said earlier about them being in the Senate’s Chamber to see the constitutionality of the proceedings and not because of Associate Justice Ja’neh, who some have accused of being a partisan of Cllr. Brumskine’s Liberty Party.
Mr. Cummings, too, described as an affront to country and people, the willful violation of the Constitution in the on-going proceedings.
“We admonish the Senate to stop this trial, which is a joke! I want it stopped by the senators, who have the voting power.”
As for Mr. Urey, he didn’t mince his words when he termed it “a politically motivated trial.”
“This country is for all Liberians and not one group of people or political party. What we do here will go down in the history of our country. Those senators participating in this ‘kangaroo process’ must realize that they will have to answer to the Liberian people. “I am calling on all senators to graduate from all this foolishness and vote against this trial,” the ALP leader, who is noted to be a tough talker, blasted.