Lawyers representing four aggrieved members of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) have suffered a major setback at the Civil Law Court in Monrovia after conceding that their attempts to stall the induction of the democratically elected leadership of the PUL had collapsed.
Speaking at a hearing on Tuesday, October 8, 2024 into a Bill of Information filed before Civil Law Court “A”, the lawyers of Mae Azango, Aloysius Makor, Musa Kenneh, and Charles Coffey, said the act for which the Bill of Information was filed on September 24, 2024, has already taken place.
The lawyers, Samwar Fallah and P. Alphonsus Zeon therefore requested Judge Golda A. Bonah Elliot to ignore the Bill of Information because it is moot, meaning it has lost its practical significance.
The admission by Attorney Fallah and Cllr. Zeon came shortly after lawyers of the PUL Interim Committee (IC) submitted their returns, asking the Court to deny and dismiss the Bill of Information for lack of legal merits.
The PUL Interim Committee’s lawyers represented by Cllr. George D. W. Sagbeh Sr., contended that the Bill of Information should be dismissed because it was not the proper process by which a party seeks to obtain an injunction as filed by Cllr. P. Alphonsus Zeon, Attorneys Samwar S. Fallah and Alpha Daffae Senkpeni.
After hearing the admission by the lawyers of the four aggrieved PUL members, the Judge of Civil Law Court “A”, Golda A. Bonah Elliot, immediately suspended hearing into the matter.
The Bill of Information filed by Cllr. Zeon, Attys. Atty Fallah and Senkpeni had asked the Judge to stop the Interim Committee from holding the inauguration of the officers-elect of the PUL, because doing so would cause substantial harm and injury to their aggrieved clients, Mae Azango, Aloysius Makor, Musa Kenneh, and Charles Coffey.
Th Bill of Information was filed after Cllr Zeon and Atty. Fallah failed in one of their many attempts to convince the Judge of the Civil Law Court to put a stop to the conduct of the September 21, 2024 election of the PUL as organized by the Interim Committee, operating under a mandate and ruling from the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, sitting in Gbarnga, Bong County.
Cllr. Zeon and Atty. Fallah had previously failed to obtain a prohibition from the Supreme Court between 12th and 20th September 2024, forcing them to take flight to the Civil Law Court, where their attempts to stop the legally-ordered election and induction did not materialize.
Cllr. P. Alphonsus Zeon who signed the Bill of Information is also Chief Strategist of the Campaign Team of PUL defeated presidential and vice-presidential candidates Daniel Nyakonah and Bettie Johnson–Mbayo.
Excluding Atty. Fallah, both Cllr Zeon and Atty. Senkpeni are active campaign strategists and managers of the defeated candidates Daniel Nyakonah and Bettie Johnson–Mbayo.
Together, Zeon and Senkpeni participated in orchestrating the conduct of the infamous mid-night election (from 7:30pm on November 19, 2022 to 3:40am on November 20, 2022) in the PUL underpinned by gross irregularities and a fraudulent membership register as ruled by the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court and as established by the Interim Committee, mandated to clean the PUL voter roll (Membership Register) and conduct rerun election.
Since failing to obtain prohibition at the Supreme Court and two injunctions at the Civil Law Court, Cllr. Zeon, Attys Fallah and Senkpeni continue their campaign of working against the interest of the PUL general membership by creating the false hopes that the democratically legitimate election and induction of the leadership of the PUL was illegal.
In so doing, Zeon, Fallah and Senkpeni continue to challenge the ruling and mandate of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, which was on December 19, 2023 mandated by the Supreme Court of Liberia to hear and adjudicate the case of membership registration fraud and constitutional violations in the PUL, a matter ruled on by Judge J. Boima Kontoe on June 18, 2024, through a Summary Judgment.
