Liberia’s Minister of Education Minister, Dr. Jarso Maley Jallah and the Deputy Minister for Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cllr. Jeddie Armah, are being cited to come along with their respective lawyers by the House of Representatives.
By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway
Sitting in its seventh session of the 3rd quarter of the 55th Legislature, plenary of the House unanimously voted to invite both top government officials from the Executive Branch along with their lawyers for members of that august body termed as gross disrespect to their authority.
The Education Minister and Minister were initially invited by the House to appear before it on Tuesday to answer to issues regarding a Liberian student who was allegedly sodomized in India.
But on the day of their appearance, Minister Jallah failed to show up on grounds that she was attending a serious occasion marking the launch of the government’s ECEL program.
On the other hand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs submitted a written excuse, informing Plenary that her Deputy for Legal Affairs would appear in her stead. And although the Deputy Minister appeared, he unceremoniously departed the Capitol without notifying the House Secretariat.
Consequentially, House of Representatives has mandated the Deputy Armah, to appear before Plenary on today, Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. and wait until they are ready to query him.
Deputy Minister Armah, who reportedly left the waiting room without informing the Office of the Chief Clerk, after appearing in response to an official invitation, is also being instructed to appear along with medical documentation relating to the reported illness of his daughter, which he cited as the reason for his departure to a lawmaker.
In so doing, he will have to convince lawmakers why he shouldn’t be held in contempt of the House for departing without any formal excuse.
Also, the Minister of Education, who also submitted an excuse, has been ordered to appear Thursday on a show-cause basis, accompanied by her legal counsel, to explain why she should not be held in contempt of the House for failing to honor the Plenary’s invitation.
Decision to invite the two officials on Thursday under a possible contempt was triggered by a motion proffered by Montserrado County District 16 Representative, Dixon Seboe.
In his motion, which was tested on the floor and voted upon, the Montserrado County lawmaker described the attitudes of both Minister and Deputy Minister as fragrant disregard to their power as members of the ‘First Branch’ of government.
The initial invite cames on the heel of a communication from Margibi County Electoral District #2 Representative Ivar K. Jones in which he reported a dreadful incident of alleged sodomy perpetrated on a Liberian student studying in India.
In his letter, Rep. Jones disclosed that on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, his office received a distress call from a family alleging that their son, Tambason Samuel (NOT HIS REAL NAME), a student at Kalinga University in Naya Raipur, India, was drugged and sodomized by an Indian citizen.
