IPNews-Monrovia,Liberia-31 August 2018: Impeachable sources have hinted the investigative ‘Independent Probe’, that former head of the presidential taskforce and Deputy Minister for State, Cllr. Fonati Koffa, is poised to replace embattled Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, his honor, Kabineh Ja’neh.
According to sources within presidential cycle, the decision to replace Cllr. Koffa following the impeachment of embattled Associate Justice Ja’neh, stemed from recent pledged by House Speaker Bhofa Chambers, Representative of Sorokan District, Maryland County, to conform with the agenda of the ‘Pro Poor’ and wishes of the President George M. Weah.
The pledged by Speaker Chambers, now eased pressure following intense pressure for his voluntarily resignation or face removal as in the case of this predecessors former Speaker Edwin M. Snowe, and Alex Tyler.
Sources confided in the ‘investigative Independent Probe’, that following the meeting which was reportedly held in the early morning of August 24th, at the residence of the President, located in the rehab community, settled on ensuring Cllr. Fonati Koffa becomes the suitable replacement for embattled Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh.
In recent days there has been speculation linking Cllr. Fonati Kffa to the seat of Speaker, of the honorable house of Representative but claims he had since denied, including this report inking him to replace Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh.
It may be recalled on Monday, the Supreme Court of Liberia, made a reversal in earlier ruling by ‘Criminal Court “C”, thus denying claims by petitioners in the sable mining/ Global Witness corruption case, mainly Cllr. Varney Sherman , now Senator, Grand Cape Mount County, that e-mails and spreadsheets were illegally acquired by than Special Presidential Taskforce headed Cllr. Fonati Koffa.
The honorable Supreme Court, through its Chief Justice Francis Saye Korkpor, declared that the defendants allegation that their emails, spreadsheets and other documentary presented by prosecution hacked, ‘they had the burden to prove otherwise’.
“It was therefore, an error by the trial judge to have required the state to prove that the documents were not hacked.”
His Honor Chief Justice Korkpor furthermore that, the law does not provide “temporary making” of the documentary evidences as was done by Judge Gbeisay, making clear that ‘after the prosecution’s witness testified to the documents and were subsequently marked and confirmed by the Court, same should be submitted to the jury or received by the judge sitting as a bench trial to determine its authenticity and materialize its being’.
In testimonial to the ruling, Justice Korkpor instructed his Clerk to mandate the judge now presiding over Criminal Court ‘C’ to resume jurisdiction over the case and placed permanent marks on those documents objected to, to ensure a determination after authenticating and materializing all of the documents presented by prosecution.
With this, and the news emerging, political commentators are just worrying whether Cllr. Varney Sherman, Senator Morris Satulmah and others might find another arena to rewaken the ghost of the ‘Sable Mining/Global Witness Case’.
It may be recalled Cllr. Varney Sherman and other were indicted during a Global Witness (GW) alleged US$950,000 bribery report, which sparked legal disagreement on the validity of the e-mails and spreadsheets acquired by the Special Presidential Taskforce prosecuting several former and present government officials with defense lawyers claiming that the documents were illegally acquired through means of hacking.
