By Gideon Nma Scott, Jr.
It is becoming clear that the fight for control at the Independent National Commission of Human Rights is far from over with the rivalry between chairman Dempster Brown and embattled commissioner Mohammed Fahnbulleh who are facing each other with claims and counter claims on activities at the national human rights house.
In less than a month following their sitting as commissioners at the INCHR; and with the excitement of claiming control of the integrity house, Fahnbulleh along with Pindarius Allison presided over the dismissal of over 18 staff members including the hearing officer, whose function was cardinal to the running of the INCHR.
These personnel were contracted by the Swedish Government through the United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) with an understanding that they would have been absolved by their national counterpart, the INCHR, to beef up their monitoring and reporting capacities in the field.
Heedlessly to the several engagements with the duo, these human rights professionals were dismissed without benefits.
Since then, the hearing function of the national human rights institution has been paralyzed. Case closed.
The cardinal functions of the INCHR includes promoting and protection human rights as well as hearing cases of human rights violation; a function which makes the hearing office a quasi-judicial court.
After succeeding in dismissing over 18 field monitors and the hearing officer, Fahnbulleh took the fight to the chairman Brown and his co-chair, Charles Harris. He formed anti-Dempster bloc, made of three of the five commissioners at the time; he (Fahnbulleh, Allison and Pela Boker Wilson) that accused the chair of mal-financial and administrative practices including chairman Brown single-handedly recruiting the Executive Director, the Director for the department of Education, Training and Information, employing his stepson as executive secretary as well as using operational funds to give staff a Christmas package; and called on the chairman to resign his post or would be voted out by a vote of no confidence by the Board of Commissioners (BoC). To date, Dempster Brown remains the chairman of the BoC at the INCHR.
Not long in his quest to unseat chairman Brown when the two other members of the BoC, Neveda Ricks and Parmila Pavey were nominated. The Team Fahnbulleh swiftly and fastidiously added the two, making the then toxic BoC five to two, with chairman Brown and his co-chair being vehemently opposed in every way. They plotted to remove co-chair Harris and replace with a not confirmed commissioner since getting at Brown seemed unachievable. But with is strength in law and his knowledge of the INCHR Art, Harris stood his ground and defended his post.
As the years went by, one of the team members of the Fahnbulleh side said she realized that the continuous fight at the commissioner and leaving the work for which they were appointed was a disservice to the Liberian people and disrespect to their own profession as lawyers, saying, “I may not agree with chairman Brown, but fighting him for three years without result, I think we can do better if we focus our attention to more thematic things.”
The Executive Director, Urias Teh Pouh said, “The INCHR has two layers, the BoC and the secretariat which I head. But some of these commissioners who should be focused more on the thematic working of the commission want to do the work of the secretariat. The various directors report to me and I report to them. But wanting to do the work of the administration, this is where we disagree.”
With all these fights, Fahnbulleh now finds himself at Criminal Court ‘E’ at the Temple of Justice, standing accused of Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, Menacing and disorderly Conduct for allegedly using inappropriate languages, sexually assaulting and touching some private parts of a female staff of the institution without her consent during an inaugural ball of the staff association in 2022.
Earlier this year, he found himself in the middle of several controversies, including the recent death of a 32-year-old man who allegedly committed suicide at the Salem Police depot in the Airfield Community.
“Brown and his people are fighting me because of my stance against corruption at the Commission. They are employing kinds of scandals to remove me from my post. But I will remain focused and work in the interest of the Liberian people,” Fahnbulleh said.
Despite his ferocious fight, his critics are sure that he (Fahnbulleh) may not survive the Sexual Assault case sitting at Criminal Court ‘E’. They believe when found guilty, the long standing and tough talking Mohammed Fahnbulleh would be brought to his heels.
But other are saying that due to his relationship and connection with many senior lawyers, he could buy his way through just as he allegedly attempted to do with Magistrate Ben Barco at the Monrovia City Court who refused to succumb to his pressure and of other senior judges and forwarded the case to the higher court.
In two separate recent protestations at the commission, the anti-Fahnbulleh protesters are calling for his resignation from the national human rights body to face trial for his alleged involvement into the sexual assault against a female colleague and his alleged involvement in the case that led to the death of 32-year-old Prince Wreyou who allegedly committed suicide by hanging on April 12, 2024.
