Monrovia — The Asset Recovery Team and the Management of Gracious Ride Inc., are expected to go through a legal argument before the Supreme Court on July 4.
The duo representatives are expected to appear before the high court to lawfully debate the legal existence of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai's Asset Recovery Taskforce, set up to retrieve government properties.
The legal schedule is a result of Gracious Ride's decision to seek an appeal to the high court, following a lower court ruling in a proceeding involving both parties.
Gracious Ride had previously craved the lower court's wisdom to stop the Asset Recovery Team from legally accessing its bank payments, transfers, financial records, and business ownership records.
Gracious Ride, again, took a flight to the Supreme Court having claimed that President Boakai has no authority to establish an Asset Recovery Team, and therefore, the Asset Recovery Team should cease to exist.
However, the high court will now determine why Gracious Ride is troubled by the existence of the Asset Recovery Taskforce, as both parties appear before the court.
The Supreme Court of Liberia had denied a Writ of Prohibition filed before it by Gracious Ride to halt the operation of the Asset Recovery Task Team.
Gracious Ride, through its manager, Francis T. Blamo, had requested the court to issue a halt order on the operation of the Task Force days after the arrest and impounding of vehicles belonging to it by the Task Force.
The court's decision was rendered by Justice in Chambers, Yusif D. Kaba.
Justice Kaba gave the green light to the Asset Recovery Taskforce to proceed with its operations, but in keeping with the laws of Liberia.
The court's decision was necessitated by the respondent's (Asset Recovery Taskforce) admittance to not following the due process of law during its arrest and impounding of the Gracious Ride vehicles.
"By directive of His Honor, Yusif D. Kaba, Associate Justice presiding in Chambers, and considering the attached communication from the respondent, you are hereby informed that the Justice has declined to issue the writ prayed for by the petitioner, reserving the rights to the respondent to proceed in keeping with the law," Cllr. Sam Mamulu, Clerk of the Supreme Court noted in a communication.
The high court's decision was intended to make the Task Force free to implement the mandate of President Joseph Boakai in line with Executive Order #126.
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"Not deliberate," Asset Recovery Team says
The Asset Recovery in its Writ of Prohibition said its action was not deliberate to disenfranchise the Petitioner but the same was done to investigate the allegations of the Petitioner's vehicles.
The Asset Recovery Team maintained that the investigation of suspicious assets falls within the mandate of the Executive Order which was announced by President Boakai.
"However, Respondent submits and yields to the petition in part and says that the authority of the Courts
The Task Force was set up by President Boakai to search, seize, and investigate government assets, including vehicles and other valuables, intentionally or unknowingly taken away by individuals.
On Thursday, March 28, the Task Force was halted by the court from carrying out any further seizure, until a pending conference in a Writ of Prohibition filed by the Management of Gracious Ride Incorporated was heard.
The company's vehicles, predominantly taxis, were recently seized by President Boakai's Assets Recovery Task Force on grounds that they were acquired through fraudulent means by a former top government official, pointing fingers at former President George Weah's Chief of Protocol, Madam Finda Bundoo.
