Monrovia – Showing spirit de corps, the House of Representatives and the Senate has issued a joint statement, calling on President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to instruct the Special Presidential taskforce to cease attacks on former and current members of the Legislature.
“The Legislature therefore calls on the president to instruct the special Taskforce to cease attacking the person and property of any present or former member of the Legislature while the joint committee carries out the investigation.”
The statement from the Legislature comes a day after House Speaker, Alex Tyler, reportedly agreed to appear before the Special presidential Task Force which has been set up in the wake of a recent Global Witness report, which alleged that US$950,000 were paid in bribes by the UK based Sable Mining via the Sherman and Sherman Law firm, owned by Grand Cape Mount County Senator, Varney Sherman, who has also been named in the report as the one instructing payments to top officials of government to change the PPCC Act for Sable to acquire the Wologizi Mountain.
Appearing side by side, House Speaker J. Alex Tyler and Senate Pro-Tempore, Armah Jallah, say the Executive has failed to observe the principle of coordination consistent with the constitution and rules of the House and Senate.
“The Joint committee of the Legislature will investigate this allegation as the legislature is the branch of government constitutionally charged to make laws,” the statement said.
“We are also aware that search and seizure writs were issued against the home of Senator Varney Sherman.
Media reports around the country carried the news that the senator’s home was put under siege by security forces on May 23, 2016 and that there are further attempts to go after other legislators in like manner.
“The legislature has seized itself of this matter for several reasons and has appointed a joint committee of both the honourable House and the Honourable Senate to thoroughly investigate this matter, commencing with a Public hearing, and a subsequent Public debate before ultimate decision by the Legislature is made.”
“In the spirit of Peace, stability, and the preservation of the dignity of government, the National Legislature is pleased to present this statement to the public,” the statement read.
It took the legislature more than 11 hours to agree on the final version of the statement which was released to the press. Source close to the Legislature told FrontPageAfrica that the delay was because some members of the senate were against the statement.
Henry Karmo – [email protected]