MONROVIA – Suspended Montserrado County district # 10 Representative Yekeh Kolubah has raised a red flag over the decision taken by President George Manneh Weah to dismiss the Managing Director of the Liberia Airport Authority (LAA), renowned Liberian Bishop John Allen Klayee, without providing any justifiable reasons to the Liberian people, especially members of the congregation of the dismissed Bishop’s church.
Lawmaker Kolubah is a stalwart of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), which includes the Liberty Party (LP), Alternative National Congress (ANC), All Liberian Party (ALP) and the former ruling Unity Party (UP).
It can be recalled that on Tuesday, July 6, 2021, the Liberian Chief Executive dismissed Bishop Klayee with immediate effect for “administrative reasons”.
The Deputy Managing Director for Operations, Martin Hayes, was mandated to act as Managing Director of the LAA pending the appointment of the entity’s new boss.
But addressing a news conference in Monrovia over the week end, Representative Kolubah disclosed that the decision taken by the Liberian leader has raised question over the integrity and character of Bishop Klayee.
Bishop Klayee is the General Overseer and Chief Executive Officer of the famous Jubilee Praise and Worship Church in Liberia, with branches in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
He maintained that the action of the President has also left not only Liberians in suspicion, but also the entire congregation of the Jubilee churches in Liberia and elsewhere.
He noted that though the actual ‘administrative reasons’ stated by President Weah for the dismissal of Bishop Klayee is not clear to the public, the Liberian leader should have respectfully asked the Bishop to tender in his resignation instead of dismissing him in such a disgraceful manner and form.
“Ambassador Weah, I am going to be more aggressive more than ever before because, this is the first time for me to see a Pastor sacking a Bishop and saying that the Bishop was anointed with red oil and not anointing oil. This is disgrace to the Bishop or Man of God”.
“When the Bishop goes to church, the congregation will ask him- ‘but Bishop why you were dismissed for? You know what it means to dismiss somebody? Ask the man to resign; but you didn’t do it”.
Representative Kolubah, however, challenged the dismissed Bishop Klayee to speak out to the public on his dismissal because, “his character is at stake”.
He, however, encouraged other clergymen and women working in the CDC government to resign, noting that, “your days are coming”.
“So when you are a Bishop or Pastor working in this government, be ready. This boy (Weah) will disgrace your; he has no respect for anybody. When the man is stealing and you want to expose it, he will dismiss you. How will you present yourself in front your congregation? What are you going to say?”
Representative Kolubah is one of the fiercest critics of President George Manneh Weah who has consistently accused the Liberian Chief Executive of accumulating wealth to the detriment of the Liberian people overnight and showing no real interest in improving the living conditions of citizens as evidenced of doing nothing to resuscitate the country’s shattered economy.
He has also accused the President of extravagant spending, constructing duplexes and acquiring properties that are questionable while thousands of Liberians continue to linger in abject poverty, and shielding corrupt officials in his government, including the Ministers of Finance and Development Planning and State for Presidential Affairs Samuel Tweah and Nathaniel McGill respectively.
Representative Kolubah is currently serving a 16-session day suspension for consistently bringing the first branch of the Liberian government, particularly the House of Representatives to public disrepute by raining insults on the presidency.
He was suspended without salaries and benefits.
War and economic crimes court
Speaking further, Representative Kolubah, a former rebel general who fought for MODEL warring fraction, is one those who is on record for calling for the establishment of a war and economic crimes court in Liberia to prosecute he and several others who committed war crimes and atrocities during the 14-years Liberian civil conflict.
He is also among over 50 lawmakers who signed a resolution for the establishment of the court in the country. But legislative debate and discussion on the resolution has suffered multiple setbacks at the level of the House of Representatives due to the unwillingness of House Speaker Dr. Bhofal Chambers to place the matter on the floor for discussion.
Representative Kolubah alleged that the CDC led-government is not showing no real keen interest in the establishment of a war and economic crimes court in Liberia.
According to him, the government wants to allegedly protect economic criminals, and wants the prosecution of war criminals.
He added that this alleged habit being implored by the CDC government is intended to wrongly implicate all Liberians into the partaking in civil wars that took part in the country.
“They are not trying to protect the war crimes court, but the economic aspect of it. There is lot of stealing in this country by government officials. We are only trying to protect ourselves. The war and economic crimes court is coming and there is nothing we can do about it. We need to account for what we have done to our people. We have abuse the resources of the Liberian people and we need to account for it”.
Representative Kolubah, who just returned to the country, stressed the need for the prosecution of war and economic criminals in Liberia regardless of political parties or affiliation.
He vowed to “use words” on anyone who try to bent or circumvent the laws in Liberia to please a particular group of people or individuals.
He claimed that Liberia has turned into a country where most public officials are keen on protecting the interest of an individual over the interest of the state and its people.
Representative Kolubah observed that Liberia will move forward in the right direction if the laws are applied without fear or favor.
“I will use words on you and I will have no regret about using words on you. The law should be the law. Nobody should be exempted from anything they have done, including me. I will have to regret for what I say. If you turn our laws outside down, I will turn you outside down-you can be whosoever.”