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No case against Cummings if Boakai fails to testify–Bility warns Court

By Lincoln G. Peters 

Mr. Musa Bility, the chair of a faction of the opposition Liberty Party (LP), says there will be no case against Alternative National Congress (ANC) political leader Mr. Alexander B. Cummings if Liberia’s former Vice President Amb. Joseph Nyumah Boakai fails to testify in the ongoing criminal trial against Cummings.

Cummings is currently facing criminal trial after being accused by All Liberian Party political leader Benoni Urey of allegedly tampering with the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) framework document and illegally attaching his (Urey’s) signature to a photocopy version. Cummings has always denied any wrongdoing. 

At the request of prosecutors, the Monrovia City Court has subpoenaed Mr. Boakai to provide testimony in the criminal case filed against Mr. Cummings.

Mr. Bility whose LP faction is loyal to Mr. Cummings wants the government here to ensure that Mr. Boakai, standard bearer of the former ruling Unity Party (UP),  appears in court to testify in the ongoing criminal trial involving Mr. Cummings.

In the wake of the accusation against Mr. Cummings of tampering with the CPP framework document, Boakai and Urey separately pulled out their political parties – UP and ALP – from the CPP, leaving only the ANC and a faction of LP as allies.

The embattled LP factional chair Mr. Bility argued during a conversation on Spoon Talk over the weekend that it’s completely disrespectful for Mr. Boakai who wants to lead this country to disrespect a court order.

Bility said if former Vice President Boakai fails to go to court and testify in Cummings’ trial, there will be no case against Cummings and others who are on trial.

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Bility said Mr. Boakai and his UP along with ALP believed that the CPP document is a fraud, and based upon that they withdrew from the CPP.

However, he said it’s time for them to prove the fraud that they have alleged, adding that they should not be escaping from the court.

“How can a former VP who claimed that this document is fraud be refusing to come to court after being called to testify?” Bility wonders. 

“This man had press conference and he damaged the character of Mr. Cumming as saying that the document is fraud in a press conference,” Bility claimed.

Mr. Bility urged that Mr. Boakai and the UP should embrace the subpoena from the Court or willingly and voluntarily testify against Mr. Cummings since they believe that he allegedly tampered with the CPP framework document.

He warned that any attempt by the Government of Liberia through the Monrovia City Court to allow the disposition of the court at Mr. Boakai’s house, they will try Mr. Cummings from his home, noting that people should learn to respect the court.

“How do you appreciate the fact that Mr. Cummings goes to court every time and sits on [the] bench and you call other people who claim that this document is fraud and use that to withdraw from the CPP [but they] are refusing to come?” Bility pondered.

“They should come and make their case. This case has gone about four months now. We want to get done with it and move on with our political life,” Mr. Bility noted further.

Last week, Magistrate Jomah Jallah granted state lawyers’ request to have Mr. Boakai appear to testify for the State against the ANC political leader, its National Chairman Daniel Naateeh and Secretary General, Counselor Aloysius Toe.

Magistrate Jallah cited Mr. Boakai to appear on 19 April 2022, to testify as the second witness for the State, as requested by State prosecutors.

The development came as defense lawyers rested with cross-examination of State witness Theodore Momo, noting that his responses indicated no alterations of the Collaborating Political Parties framework document as reviewed and submitted by the CPP team of Lawyers.

But on Tuesday, 19 April 2022, Mr. Boakia failed to honor the court’s request on grounds that he did not receive any communication from the court citing him as a witness to testify against Mr. Cummings.

The Sheriff’s returns showed that the writ of Subpoena Duces Tecum and Subpoena Ad testificandum was first taken to the Unity Party headquarters on Broad Street in Monrovia, but the former Vice President wasn’t seen to serve him the writ on 15 April 2022.

On 16 April 2022, the sheriff said he again took the writ mentioned above to the home of the former Vice President at Rehab in Paynesville where the sheriff was received by EPS personnel and he was told that the former Vice President was getting dressed and told to wait on him, something the Sheriff did.

But court records show that after a while, his EPS bodyguards came back and informed the sheriff that the former Vice President had gone to the Monrovia suburb of Gardnerville after he was told that the former Vice President was getting dressed and he should wait a while.

However, when the writ was announced at the court, the media reported that Amb. Boakai was preventing the court officers from serving a Writ of Subpoena Duces Testificandum on him.

The reports claimed that the Former Vice President made himself impossible to be reached with instructions to his securities not to allow the sheriff to enter his Rehab residence. 

This is after the Solicitor-General publicly announced that Boakai will appear in court on Tuesday, 19 April, as the “Star Witness of the government”.

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NewDawn

The New Dawn is Liberia’s Truly Independent Newspaper Published by Searchlight Communications Inc. Established on November 16, 2009, with its first hard copy publication on January 22, 2010. The office is located on UN Drive in Monrovia Liberia. The New Dawn is bilingual (both English & French).
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