Justice gone bankrupt here

Youth Activist Abraham Keita, who is calling for the prosecution of Grand Gedeh County RepresentativeMoraisWaylee, for allegedly raping and impregnating his 13-year-old niece, says justice in Liberia has gone bankrupt and the confidence of the people in the system is in serious doubt.

“The bank of justice has gone bankrupt and that selective justice is being deposited in said bank. As an advocate, I think that there is somehow a deficit of integrity and honesty in these government institutions. I am calling on the LNP, Ministries of Gender and Justice to restore public trust in them by doing that which is good and right,” Keita urges at a press conference here on Wednesday, May 31.

Keita says for government to remain impartial, retain its integrity and win the fight against rape, it must arrest, investigate and prosecute Representative Waylee, who has consistently denied the allegation being levied against him.

On Tuesday, May 23, Keita led a group of 15 peaceful protesters on the grounds of the Capitol Building, home of the Liberian Legislature following media report linking the Grand Gedeh lawmaker to the crime.

The Noble Laureate expressed disappointment in the institutions responsible for child protection, including the Ministries of Gender, Justice and the Liberia National Police for being slow in responding to calls for investigation in the matter.

He notes that his group had received a press release issued by the Ministry of Justice published via electronic media that it is not aware of any writ of summons for the crime of criminal coercion against him.

“If that information is true as stated by the Justice Ministry, then there is a probability or likelihood that the opposite hold; meaning, it is the Judge of the Monrovia City Court, Kennedy Peabody, who issued the Writ of Summons for the crime of criminal coercion against me”, he notes.

According to him, this action on the part of the court may be prejudicial because the arm of government responsible to press charges under the given circumstances has said that it is unaware and is attempting to decline to proceed further with the prosecution of the said crime.

Keita continues that the writ is intended to suppress freedom of speech, the Table Mountain Declaration signed by the President of Liberia, and it is in sharp contradiction to Articles 12 and 19 of the UNCRC and Article 17 of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor-Editing by Jonathan Browne