Supreme Court Sustains Chamber Justice’s Ruling In Lotto Case

The Supreme Court of Liberia has cancelled President George Weah’s decision to remove the Director General of the National Lottery Authority Martin Kollie from office.
The Liberian Leader completed Director Kollie in July 2018, despite his employment comes with four years tenure.
Having carefully reviewed the records, heard the arguments and contentions advanced by the counsels representing the parties and considered the laws cited and relied upon reading opinion on behalf of the Court ,Chief Justice Francis Korkpor said that although Article 89 of the Constitution of Liberia specifically created three autonomous public commissions; that same Article authorizes the legislature to create other agencies as may be necessary for the effective operation of Government and enact laws for their governance ; that even though the nomenclature does not so expressly depict ,the National Lottery Authority enjoys all attributes of an autonomous public commission, therefore the Legislature acted within the scope of its authority in enacting laws for its governance ,including the provision of tenure for its Director General.
According to the Court the Act passed by the Legislature is presumed to be constitutional unless the contrary is clearly shown, the Legislature is presumed to have act of constitutionally in passing a statute and that courts must start out with the presumption that the statute is constitutional and valid that every intendment is in favor of the validity of the statute.
The Court’s document revealed that there is no showing that the Act passed by the Legislature providing tenure for the Director of the National Lottery Authority is in violation of the power granted the President of the Republic of Liberia under the Article 56(a) of the Constitution to appoint and dismiss at his pleasure ,officials of government appointed by him, therefore ,this court sees no reason to declare the said Act unconstitutional as the Minister of Justice/Attorney General has urged us to do.
The court added that Section 8.1(b) of the Act establishing the National Lottery Authority provides that the Director General shall hold office for an initial period of four (4) years but may be reappointed for another four (4) years and no more ;notwithstanding the Director General may resign his post by notice in writing addressed to the President of Liberia through the Board of Directors or may be removed by the President for inability to discharge the functions of his office whether arising from infirmity of mind or any cause or for proved misconduct ;that there being no showing that any of the conditions under which the Director General of the National Lottery may be removed from office by the President of Liberia before the expiry of his tenure had occurred, his removal was not within the pale of the law.
The court’s judgment comes as a result of a petition for a writ of prohibition from Director Kollie’s lawyer, Counselor Stanly Kparkillen seeking to prevent his client illegal removal by President Weah.