Monrovia – It was a scene of complete disconnect between Atty. David Wilson, City solicitor, and Montserrado County Attorney Cllr. Edwin Martin during arguments in the contempt of court charge against Miss Liberia Wokie Dolo and Cape Hotel on Wednesday, August 14.
The two state’s lawyers argued from different basis without requesting what exactly they wanted the court to do.
Ms. Dolo and the hotel appeared before the Monrovia City Court Wednesday to show reason why they shouldn’t be held in contempt.
The contempt charge followed what the state termed as Ms. Dolo’s refusal to adhere to the stayed order issued on the hosting of a beauty competition in Monrovia.
Ms. Dolo denied being served the stay order writ as mentioned by the court in its Contempt writ on Tuesday.
During argument Atty. Wilson conceded in parts, admitting that the sheriff failed to serve the stay order on Ms. Dolo, so she had no knowledge that the court had placed a stayed order on the pageant.
He said the failure of the sheriff to do a return shows that Ms. Dolo was not legally under the jurisdiction of the court.
In sharp contradiction, his fellow state lawyer Cllr. Martin argued that the writ was served on Ms. Dolo but she neglected and refused to obey the court.
“From the inspection of the record I beg to inform the court that there is no contention, the service was done but Wokie refusal is grossly disobedience,” Cllr. Martin said.
In their counter-argument, Cllrs. Wiefur Sayeh, who represented Ms. Dolo and Bima Lansanah representing Cape Hotel, said the state should produce evidence that Ms. Dolo was served.
“I challenge the court to produce a file of the returns that Ms. Dolo was served the stay order, people here should learn from our arguments.”
“The state cannot hold someone on service that was not served and the state knows that they did not do the right thing,” Cllr. Sayeh.
The Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism has made attempts through the courts to revoke the intellectual rights for hosting the Miss University Africa beauty contest in Liberia.
Miss University Africa was established in 2010 as a non-bikini pageant comprising 54 African countries aimed at discouraging indecent dressing, promoting good neighborliness amongst African, empowering African women to believe in themselves thereby becoming better leaders on the continent. It is a registered International Trademark.
But the firm, which is based in Nigeria that owns the franchise, has told FPA that Ms. Dolo’s La Queen entertainment still has the right to host the program in Liberia.