Speaker Jonathan Fonati Koffa, currently facing stiff opposition, defies those seeking his removal to garner the requisite number and remove him.
By Bridgett Milton
Monrovia, Liberia, November 19, 2024 – Embattled Speaker Jonathan Fonati Koffa challenges rebel lawmakers seeking to oust him here to gather constitutionally required 49 signatures to remove him as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Since September, members of the House opting to get the Speaker out have not been able to obtain 49 signatures of their colleagues to achieve their objective.
Addressing a news conference on Monday, November 18, at the Capitol, Speaker Koffa said the constitution and standing rules of the House make it clear that a minimum of 37 members are required to elect a Speaker and 49 to remove a Speaker, noting that anything other than what the constitution says, he will not give in to members of the House calling themselves majority block.
He notes that it is time to end the practice of a group of lawmakers sitting at a hotel and pressuring elected leadership to step down.
He calls on them to redirect their attention to doing the Liberian people’s work instead and stop wasting time on something not in the people’s interest.
Embattled Speaker Koffa continues that some of his colleagues in the House had decided to meet and do business in Joint Chambers but says what they are having there is a mere meeting, as such gathering has no standing under the 1986 Constitution of Liberia and laws governing the House of Representatives.
The embattled Speaker has failed to get 39 lawmakers to attain quorum for business.
He adds that the ECOWAS Parliament, headed by its Speaker, Hadja Memounatou Ibrahim, and some members of the Parliament, was in Liberia to discuss the current power struggle with both parties of the House of Representatives.
“We were pleased to welcome our Friends from the ECOWAS Parliament who had come to help solve the current problem, and up to now, they were not able to settle the issues because both parties were not able to come to a common ground,” he explains.
The impasse is gradually crippling the daily operation of the government
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives leadership, through the embattled Speaker, has presented a 36-seated bus and three new vehicles to three departments at the House, including Press and Public Affairs, Finance and Human Resource Department, to enable them to report to work effectively. Editing By Jonathan Browne
