The House of Representatives has mandated its committee on Rules and Orders to investigate the recent actions of seven lawmakers who caused commotion that disrupted two working sessions.
The mandate to probe the lawmakers was reached during Thursday, January 22, 2015 session when the chairperson on Executive Committee, Wesseh Blamo officially complained them to the full plenary of that august body.
Representative Blamo, in his communication to plenary, said Representatives Edwin Marvin Snowe, Bill Twehway, Emmanuel Nuquay, Henry Boimah Fahnbulleh, Samuel Korga and Roland Cooper needed to be investigated and possibly punished to avoid recurrence of those ugly episodes. According to him, the situation is embarrassing and brings the august body to public disrepute.
When the communication from the Chairperson on Executive was read, Lofa County Representative, Fofi Saah Bainba, in a motion said the complaint should be sent to the Committee on Rules and Orders that will report to plenary in the coming week.
Although the motion was tested and mandate passed on but a motion for reconsiderations was filed by Montserrado County District 8 Representative Moses Acarious Gray, who opined that the committee could not be trusted to perform such a task.
Representative Gray argued that those on the Committee, mainly the Co-chair, Representative Mariamu Fofana, who he said publicly, displayed “200% support” for Speaker J. Alex Tyler during the standoff in chambers, did not have the required impartiality to preside over such task.
Recently, some members of the House of Representatives rose against Speaker Tyler, calling for him to recuse himself from presiding over the House to allow himself undergo investigation for his alleged role in the US$25,000 scandal involving the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL).
The controversial communication came from the seven lawmakers, led by Montserrado County District #3 Representative, Twehway. The letter was later withdrawn by the same group of lawmakers who submitted it. They however vowed to equip the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) with the information, claiming they want to fix the damaged image of the House of Representatives.