The Justice-In-Chambers, Jamestta Wolokollie, has arranged the conference hall at the Temple of Justice as the venue for the Friday, June 3 meeting of party executives for the purpose of reviewing of the Farmington Agreement that was endorsed at the Liberty Party’s December 2021 Convention.
According to Associate Justice Wolokollie, since the parties of the political leader Nyonblee Karnga- Lawrence and that of its Chairperson Musa Bility have agreed to meet and review the Agreement, she then maintained that there after a determination will be made on the Writ of Prohibition as prayed for.
Justice Wolokollie over the weekend send a communication to both parties citing them to a conference on Monday, May 30, 2022 in connection with a Bill of Information seeking to hear the report on the outcome of the conference that was held on April 29, 2022.
In the previous conference, Justice Wolokollie instructed the Bility faction to correct the Farmington Agreement in 72-hours because it was claimed that the Chairperson had refused to implement the Farmington MOU within a week of the Farmington sitting and that he called a National Executive Committee to pass on the matter.
According to report, the National Executive committee passed on it and it was slated for final approval by the Special National Convention (SNC) and it was this SNC that was held in December 2021 yet the body did pass on the amendments.
Immediately after the Convention, LP submitted an amended constitution, incorporating the agreements from the Farmington MOU to the National Elections Commission whereas the Farmington MOU was the amendments made to the constitution in December 2021,
If the corrections agreed upon to be made are already reflected in the constitution currently with the NEC, there would be no need for withdrawal and if it is the contrary, they will have to update the constitution and refile with the NEC.
On April 21, 2022, Karnga-Lawrence, filed a 27-count petition for a Writ of Prohibition against Musa Bility and Martin Kollah (1st Respondents) and National Elections Commission (2nd Respondents).
In her counts, she claimed that the Farmington MOU resulted in an agreement to make certain amendments to the January 2021 amended constitution, Article VII, which has to do with the roles of the political leader and the chairperson and that Bility and Kollah had refused to implement said amendments as agreed.
She also alleged that Robert Azango filed a complaint with NEC that the January 2021 Convention was fraudulent and lacked a quorum, and that the NEC Hearing Officer and Board of Commissioners both ruled that the matter be brought through the Party’s Internal Dispute Resolution Mechanism.
Also in their counts, the Political Leader set up a Special Investigating Committee to look into the matter, which the Committee found in favor of Azango, and they submitted such finding to the NEC. That, notwithstanding, both the NEC Hearing Officer and BOC denied the complaint
The LP National Executive Council expelled Bility and Kollah from LP and therefore they are no longer members and have no legal standing to issue any complaint in the Party’s name, and that the NEC is proceeding in a manner contrary to legal practices and their rights are being adversely affected, they claimed.
The respondents, however, resisted claiming that there was no disagreement on the content of the Farmington MOU rather on the lawless manner in which the political leader attempted to effectuate the MOU.
The Farmington MOU, the respondents said according, was an agreement between the political leader and the national chairperson in which they both agreed to the terms of the necessary amendments to the constitution in line with the Gbarnga Convention.
However, neither the Chairperson nor the political leader possesses the constitutional authority to commit the party without the consent of the National Executive Committee; therefore that MOU had to also be approved by the National Executive Committee.
