Monrovia – Marketers from both Central Monrovia and its environs Thursday, September 13, stormed the Temple of Justice demanding the reinstatement of their suspended leadership headed by Madam Alice Yeeban.
Report by Kennedy L. Yangian, [email protected]
The peaceful protest staged by the marketers in the court premises, which attracted several lawyers and party litigants, started when the marketers had gone to the court for the hearing of a writ of injunction filed by the lawyer of the suspended leadership.
Also on the premises of the Temple of Justice staging a peaceful protest in support of the suspended leadership were members of a pro-advocacy group – the Patriotic Consciousness Association of Liberia (PACAL) headed by one Frederick Baye.
The group carried placards that read: stop the interference in the working of the elected leadership of Alice Yeeban at the LMA.
Baye told FPA that it was wrong on the part of the government to suspend the elected LMA leadership outside of the organization’s Constitution. He said the law requires that suspension of a leader can be done at a convention by the Executive Member of the LMA Board after the accused person is given due process.
Unfortunately for the aggrieved marketers, the conference hearing was postponed.
State lawyers are yet to file their return to the writ of injunction, a court source said.
Yarsee Jalloh, a spokesperson for the aggrieved marketers, said Madam Yeeban is an elected leader and they will not sit and allow her to be illegally removed.
“Alice Yeeban is the president that we want not that corrupt Jerry Gedeh who has been appointed as the interim leader,” said Jalloh, who stressed that they had gone to the court to demand her reinstatement.
Cllr. Molly Gray, lead lawyer for the suspended leadership, confirmed the filing of the writ of injunction and promised to make available to FPA a copy of the writ, which he said proves that the suspension of the LMA President was on mere allegation of corruption.
“We have filed a writ of injunction on the appointment of an interim leadership hereby suspending the elected leadership on mere allegation of corruption but this conference hearing scheduled for today did not take place and the hearing has been rescheduled for a period of 10 day for the state to filed their return,” said Cllr. Gray.
Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor, who is a senior member of the LMA Board, suspended Madam Yeeban in August after some marketers had accused her of corruption. An interim leadership headed by Jerry Gedeh was appointed to replace her.
Madam Yeeban was overwhelmingly elected by members of the LMA on February 18, 2017 in Grand Bassa County.
After the elction, an injunction was placed on her induction by the Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice by the defeated candidates headed by former LMA Vice President Dan Sherman, alleging fraud in the polls. The court ruled in Yeeban’s favor after the defeated candidates failed to prove allegations of fraud.
She took office on June 7, 2017 and spent a little over a year before her recent controversial suspension by Vice President Taylor.