Former Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh has broken silence on his removal from the bench of the Supreme Court of Liberia, terming the decision as bogus and unconstitutional.
Speaking in Nimba County recently, Justice Ja’neh also disagreed with arguments in the public that impeachment proceedings around the world are always political, noting he was not accorded due process.
Justice Ja’neh was found guilty by the Senate following impeachment by the House of Representatives on one of the four counts, involving official misconduct and gross breach of duty of the Road Fund Case.
Justice Ja’neh asserted that his legal team is currently considering legal options to take an appeal to the ECOWAS Court in order to seek redress in the matter.
There was nothing about the removal that was legal. Though there is this argument around here that impeachment is political, If impeachment was entirely a political a constitution requires that people do it with due process.
Unfortunately, there was nothing legal about this one. It was basically a thing where people decided, this is the way we will proceed and anything happens that is the result we will hold.
When quizzed about the decision of the two Senators from Nimba County to vote for his impeachment, the Former Associate Justice stressed that both Senators Grupee and Johnson did not consider the action as a matter of national concern.
He further clarified that he has no serious disagreement with the Chief Justice Francis Kporpor, saying that Supreme Court would have done better than what she did in the impeachment case.
What is clear is that the Supreme Court could have handled this case differently, but they decided to handle it the way it went; which I consider regret.
I am not aware of any serious scramble between the Chief Justice and me.
In March 2019, Supreme Court Associate Justice Kabineh M. Ja’neh was impeached by the Legislature for granting a Writ of Prohibition petitioned by petroleum dealers in the country to stop the government from collecting levy/taxes of US$0.25 (road fund) imposed on the pump price of petroleum products.
Twenty-two Senators voted to remove him, four voted against his removal, while three abstained from the process.
Impeached Justice Ja’neh took said decision when he served as the Justice in Chambers, and was endorsed by the full bench of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice, Justice Francis Korkpor, who presided over the impeachment trial while the senators served as jurors.
Since his impeachment, there has been serous argument over who voted for or aginst Kabineh Ja’neh.
