Liberia: Embattled Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Cllr. Nwabudike Reportedly Asked to Resign
Liberia: Embattled Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Cllr. Nwabudike Reportedly Asked to Resign
MONROVIA –
FrontPageAfrica has reliably gathered that the Liberian Senate has written President George Weah advising him to call on the embattled Chairman of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC), Cllr. A. Ndubuisi Nwabudike, to resign.
Sources within the Senate said the decision was reached in an executive session on Thursday as they took into consideration the level of distrust his presence has brought to the country’s foremost anti-graft house, especially since the controversy surrounding his nationality started.
Cllr. Tiawan S. Gongloe, President, Liberia National Bar Association
Weeks after both the Supreme Court of Liberia and the National Association of Trial Judges in Luberia claimed that there was no sufficient evidence to punish any of those named in the US Treasury Department’s report of corruption against some judges and Grand Cape Mount County Senator Cllr Varney Sherman, the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA), has cautioned judicial actors and the Liberian Government not to take the issue lightly. The LNBA is the umbrella body for lawyers and judges in the country.
A release issued by the Supreme Court and the National Association of Trial Judges of Liberia earlier, challenged the Treasury Department to produce evidence in its possession based upon which the accusations against Cllr Sherman and the judges were obtained.
The Liberian judiciary has once again come under the spotlight in the wake of the US Department of Treasury sanctions slammed against prominent Liberian lawyer, Varney Sherman, currently serving as Senator of Grand Cape Mount County.
According to the US Department of Treasury, Cllr. Varney Sherman âoffered bribes to multiple judges associated with his trial for a 2010 bribery scheme and had an undisclosed conflict of interest with the judge who ultimately returned a not guilty verdict in his favor in 2019â.
The Statement further said that Counsellor Sherman has âroutinely paid judges to decide cases in his favorâ¦â and that his âacts of bribery demonstrate a larger pattern of behavior to exercise influence over the Liberian Judiciary and the Ministry of Justice.â
My people at the National Association of Trial Judges, thank you for underscoring your importance in the harmonious development of Liberia.
Thank God you know that without a credible and reliable legal environment, every development effort is a vain toil.
However, I know that the USA is the greatest nation on planet earth. The Treasury Department, without concrete and abundant proofs, will NEVER single out an individual from a professional corps to place sanctions on him for no reasons.
Many local and foreign businesspeople complain of our judiciary system. Many have been victims of the opaqueness of legal proceedings in our country. This indeed, is not sanitary to our vision of reconstruction.
As it contends with ‘141 Complaints of Gross Impropriety, Irregularity
Months after one of the three Judges of the Commercial Court, Judge Richard Klah, was forwarded to the Legislature for impeachment over accusation of bribery, the Judiciary Inquiry Commission (JIC) has vowed to ensure a speedy Investigation of the 141 complaints of impropriety and irregularities against several judges that are pending before that committee.
The Judicial Inquiry Commission is an auxiliary established within the Judiciary Branch of Liberia, with the exclusive power and authority to receive and investigate complaints against judges of courts of record and of non-record in the Republic of Liberia for violation of any provision of the Judicial Canons.