ALJA National President Moses D. Sandy

The Association of the Liberian Journalists in the Americas (ALJA) is calling on the Liberia National Legislature, especially the House of Representatives to disengage immediately from the ploy to impeach Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh as such an action does not serve the best interest of the country at this critical time.

The US-based association in a press release issued on July 25 described the plan as a distraction.

ALJA maintained that there are more troubling issues in Liberia now that need the foremost attention of all Liberians, including officials of the Coalition of Democratic Change(CDC)-led government than Associate Justice Ja’neh’s orchestrated removal from the Supreme Court’s bench.

ALJA noted that what the Weah administration needs to focus on now is the formulation of workable policies that would stabilize the worsening economic situation in the country in the wake of the hyperinflation in the exchange rate between the US and Liberian dollars, which has made life very unbearable for average Liberians in putting food on the table for their families.

ALJA emphasized that the shabby economic situation in Liberia requires the administration’s primary attention now rather than dwelling on trumped up charges for Associate Justice Ja’neh’s impeachment from the Supreme Court.

The Americas-based journalists, quoting Article 71 of the revised 1986 the Liberian Constitution said “The Chief Justice and Associates Justices of the Supreme Court and the judges of subordinate courts of record shall hold office during good behavior. They may be removed upon impeachment and conviction by the Legislature based on proved misconduct, gross breach of duty, inability to perform the functions of their office, or conviction in a court of law for treason, bribery or other infamous crimes”.

ALJA argued that if the House of Representatives, has the evidence to authenticate that Associate Justice Ja’neh has engaged or is engaging in acts that undermine his ability and credibility to function effectively as one of the five judges of the Supreme Court, such records must be made public instead of acting on half-truths and innuendos.

Meanwhile, ALJA has called on Montserrado County Districts five and eight representatives, Acarous Gray and Thomas Fallah, who are the key proponents of the Ja’neh’s impeachment bill to disengage from such divisive action and redirect their time and energies to matters that would give Liberians a sigh of relief during this period of economic hardship.

The association highlighted that it is horrifying that after 14 years of civil crisis, which claimed the precious lives of thousands of Liberians and ruined the nation’s economy in the tone of millions of dollars, the CDC-dominated House of Representatives would at this time opt to repeat the same acts and the system of bad governance that laid the basis for the civil war.

In a related development, ALJA called on the Liberian government to put a halt to the reported mass replacement of career civil servants in the public sector with CDC partisans.

The association said it learned with disappointment, through media reports, that several public sector employees who are not partisans of the CDC have been reassigned to low level positions or replaced by CDC stalwarts.

The association described the report as unfortunate and appalling, noting that every Liberian has the right to equal employment opportunities in the government; and that the hiring, promotion and retaining of civil servants should not be based on political patronage, but qualification and competence.

ALJA reminded President George Weah and the CDC government that Liberia and its public sector jobs belong to all Liberians regardless of ethnic or political affiliation.