MONROVIA – Solicitor General Cllr. Syrenius Cephus says he was acting under the instruction of the Minister of Justice, Cllr. Frank Musah Dean, when he issued the Writ of Arrest for the political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) and his party executives.
Cllr. Cephus made the disclosure in a text message to the CEO of Spoon Communications, Stanton Whiterspoon.
Justice Minister Dean, meanwhile, has told FrontPageAfrica that the Solicitor General has never reported anything about the Cummings’ case to him, neither was he aware of any Writ being quashed nor reinstituting another writ.
Cllr. Dean said the Solicitor General runs a parallel Ministry and shows him no regard as the Minister of Justice.
“He calls himself the Chief Prosecutor and does not report to me. I know nothing about what S.G. Cephus does,” he stated.
In the message, Cllr. Cehpus noted that it is only the Minister of Justice who has the constitutional backing to disagree or the government on the question of law and still keep his job and is also the only person who can order a matter to be dismissed.
“I am only a prosecutor who is acting under his control and supervision but he’s afraid to take a firm decision and believes that I will unilaterally abandon the case so that he can use it against me to the government and people of Liberia,” Cllr. Cephus stated.
He went on to describe his role as a frontline commander who only acts on instructions.
Cllr. Cephus in the same message went on to question the efficiency of the Justice Minister in the wake of multiple crimes being reported in the country without any arrest being made. He stated, “Look at the waves of crimes being committed in the country and there are no arrests and prosecutions and yet there’s a Justice Minister who believes his role is being usurped by someone like me whose role is simply to go to court?”