{"id":22463,"date":"2025-04-26T15:39:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T14:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=22463"},"modified":"2025-04-26T15:39:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T14:39:34","slug":"liberias-supreme-court-validates-speakership-of-fonati-koffa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/liberias-supreme-court-validates-speakership-of-fonati-koffa\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberia\u2019s Supreme Court validates speakership of Fonati Koffa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: <\/strong>SomeLiberians have asserted on social media that the Supreme Court did not declare Fonati Koffa a legitimate speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict:<\/strong> False. Checks by DUBAWA indicate that the Supreme Court declared Fonati Koffa a legitimate speaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court of Liberia handed down its ruling on an amended bill of Information filed by Fonati Koffa, questioning the legitimacy of Richard Koon as the speaker of the 55th legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amended bill of Information followed the differing views of the Supreme Court\u2019s December 6, 2024, opinion and judgment regarding who the legitimate speaker of the House of Representatives was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 23, 2025, the high court ruled<\/a> in favour of Representative Fonati Koffa, declaring him the constitutional speaker of the 55th House of Representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Facebook user posted a message<\/a> congratulating Koffa on winning the election as the legitimate speaker of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His post attracted diverse views, with many commenters saying that Koffa had not won the court\u2019s ruling and that the poster was sharing false information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A screenshot of the conversation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As of the time of this report, the post had 488k reactions, 129 comments, and three shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the mixed comments about the legality of Koffa\u2019s speakership, DUBAWA checked the claims made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA witnessed live<\/a> the Supreme Court\u2019s April 23, 2025, opinion and judgement on the amended bill of Information filed by Fonati Koffa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the ruling, the high court granted Koffa\u2019s bill, declaring him the constitutional speaker of the 55th House of Representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA also obtained a copy of the Supreme Court\u2019s three-page judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is quoted as declaring, \u201cthe exclusion of Speaker J. Fonati Koffa, the duly elected presiding Officer of the House of Representatives, while he is present and available to preside is unconstitutional and without the pale of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

 Based on the Supreme Court’s judgment, it is clear that Koffa is the legitimate Speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Screenshot of a portion of the court\u2019s judgment <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The comments that Fonati Koffa did not win the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling as the legitimate speaker are false.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: SomeLiberians have asserted on social media that the Supreme Court did not declare Fonati Koffa a legitimate speaker. Verdict: False. Checks by DUBAWA indicate that the Supreme Court declared Fonati Koffa a legitimate speaker.  Full Text The Supreme Court of Liberia handed down its ruling on an amended bill of Information filed by Fonati Koffa, questioning the legitimacy of Richard Koon as the speaker of the 55th legislature. The amended bill of Information followed the differing views of the Supreme Court\u2019s December 6, 2024, opinion and judgment regarding who the legitimate speaker of the House of Representatives was. On April 23, 2025, the high court ruled in favour of Representative Fonati Koffa, declaring him the constitutional speaker of the 55th House of Representatives. A Facebook user posted a message congratulating Koffa on winning the election as the legitimate speaker of the House of Representatives. His post attracted diverse views, with many commenters saying that Koffa had not won the court\u2019s ruling and that the poster was sharing false information. As of the time of this report, the post had 488k reactions, 129 comments, and three shares. Because of the mixed comments about the legality of Koffa\u2019s speakership, DUBAWA checked the claims made. Verification  DUBAWA witnessed live the Supreme Court\u2019s April 23, 2025, opinion and judgement on the amended bill of Information filed by Fonati Koffa. During the ruling, the high court granted Koffa\u2019s bill, declaring him the constitutional speaker of the 55th House of Representatives. DUBAWA also obtained a copy of the Supreme Court\u2019s three-page judgement. It is quoted as declaring, \u201cthe exclusion of Speaker J. Fonati Koffa, the duly elected presiding Officer of the House of Representatives, while he is present and available to preside is unconstitutional and without the pale of the law.\u201d Conclusion  Based on the Supreme Court’s judgment, it is clear that Koffa is the legitimate Speaker. Screenshot of a portion of the court\u2019s judgment  Conclusion  The comments that Fonati Koffa did not win the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling as the legitimate speaker are false.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1960,5,3815],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[3786],"class_list":["post-22463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liberia","category-elections","category-homepage"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-5Qj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":3786,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"gloria-wleh","display_name":"Gloria Wleh","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Photo-of-Liberias-temple-of-justice.-Photo-source-Getty-Images.jpg?fit=512%2C338&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22465,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22463\/revisions\/22465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22463"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=22463"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=22463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}