Monrovia – Representative Alex J. Tyler who recently rescued himself as Presiding Officer of the House of Representatives due to pressure from some of his colleagues has been ousted as Speaker through a resolution signed by 49 members of the House of Representatives.
Report by Henry Karmo – [email protected]
“The complainants, witnesses and committee members were present.
However, Speaker Tyler, having been duly notified of charges against him and the date and time for the hearing, failed, refused and neglected to appear and the committee proceeded with the taking of evidence”- Committee on Rules, Orders and Administration report to plenary .
The 49 lawmakers’ action was in keeping with Article 49 of the Constitution of Liberia which provides the process through which the speaker of that body can be removed.
Article 49 of the Liberian Constitution states: “The House of Representatives shall elect once every six years a Speaker who shall be the presiding officer of that body, a Deputy Speaker and such other officers as shall ensure the proper functioning of the House.
The Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and other officers so elected may be removed from office for cause by resolution of two-thirds majority of the members of the House.”
The current House of Representatives has a total of 73 lawmakers and a two-third of that number is 49.
The decision by the 49 lawmakers was a result of a report from the committee on Rules, Orders and Administration which recommended that, in keeping with the House of Representatives rules 48.1, and 48.3 in the committee report it was unanimously recommended that Representative Tyler be removed from his position as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The committee report is a result of a mandate given the committee by the plenary of the House of Representatives to investigate complaints brought before that body by Representative Henry Fahnbulleh (Unity Party, Montserrado County) and Samuel Korgar of Nimba County who accused lawmaker Tyler of taking bribe and other alleged criminal conducts against his position as a Speaker.
The committee was also tasked with the responsibility to investigate Representative Tyler for allegedly taking hooligans and thugs to disrupt the activities of some lawmakers.
Stated the committee: “The complainants, witnesses and committee members were present.
However, Speaker Tyler, having been duly notified of charges against him and the date and time for the hearing, failed, refused and neglected to appear and the committee proceeded with the taking of evidence”.
The decision comes at a time when Speaker Tyler is out of the Country on medical leave. Judge Emery Paye of the Criminal Court “C” at the Temple of Justice gave a week of medical leave to the indicted Lawmaker to seek treatment abroad.
The court’s decision was based on lawmaker Tyler’s request made through a written communication to the court to seek medical treatment abroad.
The Judases in Tyler’s removal
The joint chambers of the Capitol building where legislative activities are being held went wild when some names were called by the deputy secretary of the senate as he read the names of members of the House of Representatives who signed the resolution to have Representative Tyler removed as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
There were shocks on the faces of some members of the audience including some lawmakers who were in disbelief to hear some names that they believe would not have betrayed Representative Tyler. Names including; Solomon George, Saah Joseph, Garrison Yealue, Samuel Worleh, Morias Waylee and Charles Bardly were amongst those who signed the resolution.
Many lawmakers were shocked because these names during the leadership crisis were strong supporters of the Tyler bloc who could not under any circumstances betray him.
One lawmaker many did not expect was lawmaker George who has been a very loud voice in the fight to retain Tyler as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Representative George was last week denied entry into the United States of America. FrontPageAfrica quoted a copy of U.S. Homeland Security document in which it denied Representative George entry into the United States of America by withdrawing his application for admission.
“You have not presented enough evidence to make me believe that you are here for tourism purposes. Therefore, you are inadmissible to the United States pursuant to section 212(a) (7)(A)(i)(I) of the immigration and Nationality Act.
Your admission is withdrawn under Authority of section 217 of the act. Do you understand that you are not eligible to enter the United States at this time?” Ryan Winstead, United States Immigration Officer stated.
In the document U.S. immigration officer Ryan Winstead, who investigated and denied the Liberian lawmaker opportunity to go beyond the O’Hare International Airport claimed that the Liberian lawmaker was seeking admission to join and live with his wife who gave birth on her last trip to the United States and was an overstayed immigrant, as well to join his eldest daughter who was on Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Like Representative George, Representatives Joseph, Waylee and Worleh withdrew their signatures from the recusal document because according to them the initial decision to have the Speaker recuse himself was taking a different trend where they accused others of pushing for removing the Speaker saying they could not be part of such process.
The three lawmakers went to an extent to notarize their letters of withdrawal from the resolution calling for the speaker to recuse himself.
Three weeks ago announcing what many saw as the ultimate decision, recusing himself as Presiding Officer of the House of Representatives, lawmaker Tyler disclosed that the pressure by his colleagues is more than just an indictment, saying President Sirleaf has told many stakeholders including members of the Bomi County Legislative caucus that she can no longer do business with him.
He said, the President accused him of undermining the country’s development agenda by refusing to pass certain legislations such as financing agreements.
“Therefore, if my recusal is the ultimate sacrifice that will move our country forward and end this current quagmire, I am herewith recusing myself from presiding over the plenary of the House of Representatives so that the business of the Liberian people can be fully addressed”, Representative Tyler said.
The now removed Speaker in his statement said, the Legislature, as the first branch of government, is entrusted with the responsibility of independently scrutinizing all bills, financial agreements (loans, protocols, conventions, agreements, etc) that are presented to it for consideration and passage where necessary and as such for over ten years, under his leadership the body has passed key legislations.
Ratification of these legislations, he said, has been done in the best interest of the country and furthermore, when some legislation was not suitable, they were rejected in the interest of the country.
In August a FrontPage Africa’s investigation uncovered that the likely source of what has been a hidden bad blood between the Executive and the Legislature is as a result of more than twenty-six stalled bills currently before the Legislature, some dating far back as July 2013.
According to documents available to FPA since February 2012, the start of the second term of President Sirleaf, about 97 bills have been proposed to the Legislature from the Executive but twenty-six of these bills are still languishing at the Legislature, yet to be ratified by the body.
Regarding the ratification of laws, the Speaker said: “For over ten years, when we ratified several agreements and passed key legislations, we did so in the best interest of the country. Equally so, when we deem certain legislations not suitable for the country, the necessary interventions were made and in some cases, we painstakingly rejected.
