Former President George Manneh Weah dismissed Mr. Smith in 2023 based on allegations linking him to financial misconduct.
By Lincoln G. Peters
Monrovia, January 6, 2025: The Civil Law Court in Monrovia on Friday, January 3, 2025, ordered the reinstatement of dismissed Liberia Institute for Statics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) Deputy Director General Mr. Wilmot Smith.
Smith was dismissed in 2023 by former President George Weah based on allegations of financial misconduct made on the Spoon TV talk show.
It was alleged that Smith was linked to financial misconduct regarding funds designated for enumerators.
But the court has ordered President Joseph Nyuma Boaka’s government to “restore, calculate and pay” Mr. Smith “all withheld entitlements.”
The court included salaries, allowances, and benefits from the date of Mr. Smith’s dismissal from office up to the date of notification of this judgment.
The Court also ordered the government to reinstate Mr. Smith as a Deputy Director General for Information Coordination at LISGIS.
The Court also granted the Petition for Declaratory Judgement filed against the Government of Liberia in 2023.
The Spoon allegedly received the information from an employee of Ecobank-Liberia, Yussif Kromah, in the bank account office.
Without any authorization, Kromah was said to have released LIGIS’s Account Statements that were manipulated by Mr. Stanton Witherspoon and his collaborators in the persons of Martin K. N. Kollie and Alex Williams, former Deputy Director General for Statistics, to incriminate Smith of wrongfully withdrawing the money.
In his ruling, Judge George Wah-Harris Smith held the government liable for the wrongful and illegal dismissal of Smith.
“The dismissal of Smith was illegal, wrongful, and violated the Constitution relative to the Autonomous Agency,” Smith further ruled.
In his declaratory judgment, Smith’s lawyer, Arthur Johnson, challenged the dismissal by former President Weah, describing it as unconstitutional.
Cllr. Johnson argued that the Act of LISGIS does not grant power to the President of Liberia to dismiss the Petitioner or the Director-General; rather, it is the Board of LISGIS.
“The Act creating LISGIS is in line with Article 89 of the Constitution of Liberia, and this makes the Act constitutional and autonomy constitutional under Article 89 of the Liberian Constitution.”
Johnson insisted that for the president to claim dismissal of the Petitioner “for cause” in the absence of the due process of law is a violation of Chapter III, Article 20 of the Constitution of Liberia.”
He argued that the standard of this provision of the Constitution, institutions or agencies created by the Legislature, and given tenure status are constitutional.
According to him, the removal of any official from any of these positions must be for a cause consistent with due process.
He continued that removal after the tenure period expires is the only constitutional and legal means.
In his case, Smith said that the facts revealed that President Weah strictly violated the Constitution and the Act creating LISGIS.
According to him, the action of the ex-president to dismiss him was a violation of the Act of LISGIS.
“In 2004, after the passage of the LISGIS Act, the previous president of Liberia, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, made such an appointment,” said Mr Smith.
“And since that requirement of the statute of LISGIS was met, no subsequent president of Liberia has that authority to remove or dismiss the Director-General of LISGIS, the Deputy Director Generals of LISGIS, including members of the board of directors of LISGIS,” he added.
