Monrovia – Claims by the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Liberia, Mr. Alex Tyler, that he has become a target of the Liberian presidency, are being rebuffed by the office of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
Speaker Tyler told a news conference this week on the eve of the visit of U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama that President Sirleaf was the architect for an attempt by his colleagues in the lower house to remove him from office. “The chief architect of this ploy is President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and the chief motive of President Johnson Sirleaf is to remove me as the Speaker of the House of Representatives who is seen in her mind an obstacle in pursuance to her personal political agenda,” Speaker Tyler averred.
The leader of the lower house said the President is seeking to by-pass the constitutional safe-guard of an independent Legislature while lamenting that the circumstances surrounding the Global witness report which named him and other senior Government officials for bribery, was aimed at destroying his credibility.
Speaker Tyler argued that it is reasonable to anticipate, given the country political history and context, the next move could be an attempt on his person and life.
The Speaker accused the president of using people he termed as surrogates to remove him has now taken step further by inducing lawmakers to sign a resolution to remove him. “I wish to inform you ladies and Gentlemen, that the President has now moved a step further by calling on individual lawmakers to induce them through the offer of financial package to draw up and sign a resolution for my removal”, Speaker Tyler lamented.
In a statement Wednesday, however, the President’s office took exception not only to the outrageous allegations but the timing, coming on the eve of the visit of the U.S. First Lady.
The statement noted:
The attention of the Office of the Press Secretary to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been drawn to the Monday June 27, 2016 Press Conference by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, J. Alex Tyler in which he made several grave allegations against the person and office of the President of the Republic of Liberia.
We were totally shocked that when our country was engulfed with the historic visit of the First Lady of the United States of America, Mrs. Michelle Robinson Obama, the sitting Speaker of the 53rd Legislature would make such baseless and unfounded comments.
Although Mrs. Obama’s visit was an occasion that witnessed the involvement and participation of senior officials of all branches of the Liberian Government, it was a complete surprise for the 3rd ranking official of the Government of Liberia to attempt to take away the focus from the positives of the US First Lady’s visit to gossip politics.
We reject all of the claims made by Speaker Tyler and can simply term his action as a mere scare-crow tactics principally because they are far from the truth. We dismiss as falsehood and totally baseless the insinuation about “the President-led plot” to use inducement for the removal of the Speaker when there are very important matters of state that need to be urgently attended to. We call on Speaker Tyler to exercise leadership in resolving the pending crisis at the House of Representatives instead of bringing his colleagues and the Office of the President into public disrepute through the wild and unsubstantiated claims he has made.
President Sirleaf cannot and will not be drawn into fractious contestation where none exists. This is why over the years; she has had an amicable working relationship with the Legislature and its leadership, as well as other components of the government of Liberia. She has gone over many times at the National Legislature to ensure that the fundamental principles of the three separate, but equal and coordinate branches of government remain cardinal and the pinnacle around which the government development agenda must anchor it axis.
We chose to formally respond to these baseless claims just for the records, and will not spend time and energy on such matters but rather on matters that will improve the nation and impact the lives of the citizens. We assure Liberians that the current state of affairs in the House, which is stalling our national development agenda will be eventually settled and encourage all, including Speaker Tyler and his colleagues to keep the focus on the things that matter for the Liberian people.