Brownie Samukai Woes Deepens: Justice Nagbe Grants Gov’t’s Petition to block Certification

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Brownie Samukai Woes Deepens: Justice Nagbe Grants Gov’t’s Petition to block Certification

IPNEWS – Monrovia: The prolonged legal battle around the certification of Lofa County Senator-elect, J. Brownie Samukai is far from over.

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Nagbe has granted the Government of Liberia’s request to order the National Elections Commission (NEC) to halt the certification of Lofa County Senator-elect J. Brownie Samukai, Jr.

Associate Justice Nagbe said the petition for the Writ of Prohibition being properly applied for and taking into consideration the controlling laws cited, is hereby granted.

He ordered the Clerk of the court to issue the peremptory Writ of Prohibition, send a mandate to the first respondent, NEC, disallowing the certification of the second respondent J. Brownie Samukai, Jr., until his disability imposed on him by his conviction is removed according to law. And is here by ordered.

The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Justice filed a Writ of Prohibition on March 29, 2021, to prevent Senator-elect Samukai, Jr. from being certificated by the National Elections Commission.

The government prays that Samukai is a judicially disenfranchised citizen and a convicted felon.

In February this year, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling, sentencing the former Defense Minister, along with two former subordinates to a two-year imprisonment for misuse of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) pension fund, but with a condition that they would be set free if they restitute the US$1.3 million over a one-year period.

The Government argued that with the guilty verdict hanging over him, Samukai, who had earlier secured a massive victory in Lofa County on the opposition Collaborating Political Party’s ticket during the Special Senatorial Election, was unfit to serve as Senator and therefore should not be certificated by the NEC.

The latest ruling is a major blow to the embattled Senator-elect who is desperately looking for an opportunity to mend his broken character, and the CPP that is seeking to increase its number at the Liberian Senate going into the 2023 Presidential and Legislative elections.