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Liberia: Dillon Threatens to File Injunction
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The Analyst (Monrovia)
19 March 2008
Posted to the web 19 March 2008
Some Liberians especially those working with the National Legislature taught that the then Aide to former House Speaker, Abraham Darius Dillon would have been silent by now after the House Plenary found him guilty of contempt, and placed him in common jail at the Monrovia Central Prison where he spent four days before he been released from detention.
Mr. Dillon was released when his lawyer made a presentation to the Honorable Supreme Court informing the country's highest court that his client was illegally detained and he was not accorded the necessary due process, something the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Dillon against the House of Representatives.
Contrary to the beliefs of those Liberians, Mr. A. Darius Dillon who now works in the office of Bong County Senior Senator, Jewel Howard Taylor has again taken the judiciary committee investigating the bribery allegation to task indicating that the committee and the House Plenary lacked the moral credentials to further proceed with the investigation.
The former Speaker's Aide told legislative reporters at the Capitol yesterday that bribery is a felonious crime for which the President and the Vice President if found guilty of could be impeached, something he said members of the House of Representatives were not cognizant of, and were joking with said matter.
The Bong County Senior Senator Chief of Office Staff said bribery according to the Liberia's panel code and the 1986 constitution is a crime that should be investigated by the Ministry of Justice.
He maintained that based on the consistent refusal of the House to allow independent team to conduct the alleged House bribery allegation, he has reached a logical and constitution decision to file a rate of injunction to the Supreme Court to stop the proceeding.
He told legislative reporters that he will file the stay order to the Supreme Court by next week on grounds that the committee and the House Plenary lacked the legal jurisdiction to handle the case, and is calling on the Justice Ministry to invite those accused lawmakers for the alleged criminal acts.
Members of the Lower House had argued that the constitution gave them the power to adopt their own rules, and that their standing rules mandate the Judiciary Committee to investigate both civil and criminal matters of which the issue of bribery is of no exception.
But Mr. Dillon continues to be harsh on the matter, as he and other international bodies including the U.S. Ambassador, Donald Booth, the International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL) and several human rights and civil society institutions have opposed the House investigating itself, and proposed that independent bodies be set up to probe the allegation.
Besides, threatening to put a stay order on the investigation, Mr. Dillon has indicated that he was disappointed on the slow place the Judiciary Committee was taking to the investigate the allegation, and squarely placed the slow pace as the lawmakers' ploy to shy away from justice.
What is most surprising in the investigation, Darius Dillon indicated that the Judiciary Committee has deliberately refused to set a time frame of how long the committee will take to probe the matter to a logical conclusion so that the Liberian people would be able to know the true story of the bribery allegation.
It can be recalled that in 2007, the former speaker, Edwin Snowe accused some 46 members of the House of Representatives who signed the Ten Count Resolution to remove him as speaker of the Honorable House of receiving US$5,000.00 each as bribe to dethrone him.
He has since his presented evidence to the House Judiciary Committee in which he said four of his colleagues, Bong County Lawmaker, Samuel Bono, Montserrado County Lawmaker, Dr. Ketterkumeh Murrah, Richard Saah Gbollie of Margibi and Rufus Gbier of Grand Gedeh of admitting of receiving bribe to unseat him.
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Dillon fell in trouble with the House when he accused the Judiciary Committee of plotting to expel Edwin Snowe from the House in connection with the bribery allegation, his assertion, plenary said has the propensity to undermine the investigation.
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