Monrovia –– Samuel Bennett, the Deputy Commissioner General, has been given a seven-day ultimatum to retract his suspension letter of James Afif Jaber, Assistant Commissioner for the Real Estate Tax Division, which has since gone viral on social media.
By: Victoria G. Wesseh
In the suspension letter dated November 17, Bennett claims that the decision to suspend Jaber is in keeping with Section 13.4 of the Human Resources Management Policy Manual of the LRA.
He noted that Jaber exhibited gross insubordination verbally in his office on Thursday, November 16.
“Your actions were displayed in the presence of both the Technical Focus Point of the DCGAA and the Assistant Commissioner of Human Resources during a meeting to address complaints against you by supervisor Victor Seah,” the suspension letter indicated.
“Please take serious note that any recurrence of such act or similar misconduct will result in further disciplinary action up to and including dismissal,” it adds.
In reaction to Bennett’s action, Jaber’s lawyer, Jonathan Massaquoi, warned that if Bennett does not retract the communication within seven days, he will file a US$1.5 million damages lawsuit.
Cllr. Massaquoi, in a letter of demand for retraction dated November 20, 2023, and addressed to Bennett, stated that his client, James Afif Jaber, felt embarrassed and intimidated by the incident, which was filmed and made fun of by onlookers before being shared on the Internet.
Massaquoi further warned Bennett to retract the content of his posted letter within a period of seven days.
“Your failure to retract and to give the same equal prominence to said retraction in accordance with my client’s demands will leave me no remedy but to institute the appropriate legal action against you,” Massaquoi, received on November 21 by Bennett’s office staff identified as Hanico.
Massaquoi said Bennett’s behavior and attitude were a great cause of embarrassment for his client.
“Clearly implicating my client in the act of gross insubordination and misconduct without any iota of proof to do so, and together with said disparaging comments of this communication.”
Massaquoi noted that the communication exposed his client to public ridicule both nationally and internationally by its publication in the public. In that said communication, it accuses Jaber of being undisciplined and unruly with malicious, sinister, or actual motives on the part of Bennett and the management of LRA to expose him to economic hardship and emotional distress.
Massaquoi further said the November 17 communication is under the captioned “One month suspension without pay.”
“It was intentional intimidation and humiliation of my client when you spewed out strong and abusive words against his person in your office on November 16, contrary to the professional and ethical manual of the LRA.”