Embattled UP Chair Withdraws Case Against Party From S/Court

Suspended Unity Party strongman whose controversial anti-Council of Patriots statement got him in hot water to the extent his fellow partisans would suspend him as the National Chairman of the party, has relented to further pursue a legal battle against his in-party rivals at the level of the Supreme Court of Liberia.

Wilmot Paye’s lawyers did not provide any reason for withdrawing the petition seeking for a Writ of Prohibition to be issued against Unity Party for his “illegal” suspension as Chairman, but legal pundits suspect that Paye may not want to engage in actions and counter-actions that could further plunge the immediate past ruling Unity Party into public ridicule.

Other executives of the party, so furious about the embattled chairman’s alleged betrayal, accused him of “acting unilaterally” when he addressed a press conference to denounce the January 6 “Weah-Step-Down Campaign” and distance the party from such anti-government protest.

Nonetheless, Paye insists that his action was “moral” because when UP was in power, it detested an “Ellen-Step-Down” campaign, therefore, it could not support any such thing despite its many disagreements with the ruling establishment.

Paye’s legal counsel Arthur Johnson duly communicated with the Clerk of the Supreme Court on his client’s latest decision.

On January 31, 2020, Cllr. Johnson on behalf of his client presented 17 counts before the Justice-in-Chamber, Yussif Kaba, challenging the “unconstitutional suspension” of Paye as chairman of the Unity Party.

In the counts, he stated that his client’s six-year tenure was ending on July 8, 2020, when a new corps of officers and a new standard bearer would be elected as enshrined in the UP Constitution.

Earlier, defending the petition for Writ of Prohibition to nullify Paye’s suspension, Cllr. Johnson also argued that, “Article X Section 4 of the UP constitution stated that the ”National Executive Committee shall by 2/3 majority vote of its entire membership have the authority during the recess of the national convention to remove from office any elected officer who is inept, incapacitated and/or unable to perform the functions of his /her office and to replace him/her with another member of said party.”

Meanwhile, this move by Paye and his lawyer means that, as it stands, there is no petition before the Justice-in-Chamber concerning the UP.

LINA

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