Divided Lawmakers to Appear Before Liberia's Traditional Leaders

In the wake of the power struggle among members of the House of Representatives at the Capitol Building, the Traditional leaders of Liberia are calling for calm among the members of that body.

The head of the Traditional Council of Chiefs of Liberia, Chief Zanzan Karwor said it is discouraging for Honorable men and women who are supposed to be making laws to benefit the Liberian people to instead be fighting among themselves.

He told FrontPageAfrica that as traditional leaders, they will not sit and allow lawmakers fight among themselves.

He disclosed that the Liberia Council of Chiefs has invited the two groups of lawmakers to appear at the offices of the Council of Chiefs in Sinkor.

Several members of the House of Representatives are rejecting the presence of their Speaker, Alex J. Tyler to preside over regular session in the face of his alleged link to bribery allegation recently exposed by Global Witness, stressing that he should recuse himself from presiding over session until he is exonerated from the allegation.

Dozens of the Representatives including Tokpa Mulbah of Bong County called on their colleagues to continue their support against Speaker Tyler by rejecting him from presiding over session at the National legislature.

The London-based Watchdog Group, Global Witness recently alleged that more than US$950,000 in bribes and other suspicious payments were made to top Liberian officials including Speaker Alex Tyler by the Britain-based Sable Mining Company and its Liberian lawyer, Cllr. Varney Sherman.

Since the indictment of Speaker Tyler for his alleged involvement in the bribery saga of the Global Witness report, the House of Representatives has been divided with one group of lawmakers calling for the Speaker to recuse himself while others are backing the Speaker urging him (Speaker Tyler) to not bow to those calling for his recusal.

With the current confusion at the Capitol, traditional leaders of Liberia say they (traditional leaders) do not expect the lawmakers to disrespect them by failing to appear before the Council.

Chief Karwor said he will convene a meeting between the two group of lawmakers - “They are our children and we are their fathers, we cannot be sitting and allow our children to be fighting among themselves, they cannot tells us no, they will come and we will have meeting with them to solve this problem so our Liberian people work can be done,” he noted.

The power struggle at the House of Representatives has stalled workings at the Capitol Building with the Executive branch of government calling for calm among lawmakers.

Deputy Information Minister Isaac Jackson told FPA that the Executive cannot deal with a divided House of Representatives.

He noted that the executive branch of government is looking forward to lawmakers resolving their problem.

“We from the executive are concerned; the President is concerned and wants the confusion among lawmakers to be resolved. Let this be very clear for the record, the President has no hand in what is unfolding at the Capitol Building,” he noted.