IPNEWS-Monrovia: The former Vice President of Liberia and Political Leader of the opposition former ruling Unity Party (UP), Joseph Boakai has expressed concern over his security ahead of his appearance at the Monrovia City Court to testify for Government lawyers in connection to the Alternative National Congress (ANC) political leader Alexander Cummings’ criminal trial at the Temple of Justice on Capitol Hill.
Ambassador Boakai is expected to provide evidence today Monday, Mar 2, 2022 for Government’s lawyers at the Monrovia City Court where defendant Cummings and two of his officials, ANC National Chairman Senator Daniel Naatehn and Secretary General Cllr. Aloysius Toe are currently on trial for allegedly tempering with the Framework Document of the opposition Collaborating Political Party (CPP).
According to judicial sources, Boakai’s security concerns were made known when he received his writ of Subpoena last Saturday, April 30, 2022 from Court Officers at his residence in Paynesville.
The Unity Party (UP) and the All Liberia Party (ALP) political leaders have since withdrawn from the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) before the ALP leader dragged the ANC political leader, Alexander Cummings for allegedly tempering with the CPP Framework Document.
The UP Political Leader’s appearance comes after Magistrate Jomah Jallah denied prosecution lawyers’ request to allow Mr. Boakai’s testify through disposition, meaning without appearing in court in consistent with Chapter 17 Section 17.1 of the Criminal Procedure Law of Liberia.
A fortnight ago, the media reported that the UP Standard Bearer refused to accept a Subpoena from the Court’s Sheriff, after he proceeded to Mr. Boakai’s home in the Rehab Community in Paynesville only to be told that the former Vice President had gone out on a visit.
The newest development about the former VP testifying comes weeks after the Court Sheriff informed the public about the difficulty in locating the former VP to serve him the subpoena.
The delay then forced the Ministry of Justice, which is prosecuting the case, to appeal to Magistrate Jomah Jallah to grant prosecutors’ request of deposition as a means of having Boakai answer questions under oath as the state witness in the ongoing criminal trial of Cummings.
But with Boakai having now received the subpoena, it is yet unclear what the magistrate’s next step will be whether to grant the deposition appeal as part of the prosecution’s right to preserve testimonial evidence, or reject the disposition request, and allowing the subpoena to take its course and have Boakai, who is now the state’s second witness to testify in the ongoing trial of Alexander Cummings and other members of the ANC.
Whatever the Magistrate’s decision might be, the former VP will one way or the other testify against his opposition colleague, who he worked with for a few years as one of the leaders of the Collaborating Political Parties.
And he will share with the court what he knows, specifically as it relates to the copy of the framework document submitted to the National Elections Commission by Cummings while serving as chairman of CPP, as well as other information or documents that prosecutors need to implicate Cummings in the commission of the act.
Prosecutors are heavily relying on the former VP’s testimony, which they believe is valuable to them in the criminal trial against Cummings, the political leader of the ANC, and his co-defendants, the party Chairman Daniel Naatehn and Secretary-General Aloysius Toe, due to his firsthand knowledge about the CPP framework document, which prosecutors alleged were altered by the defendants.
The ANC officials have vehemently rejected and denied the charges as bogus, and politically motivated as part of conspiracies between the All Liberian Party of Benoni Urey and the ruling CDC with ulterior motives.
