The Civil Law Court of Montserrado County has denied and dismissed a petition for declaratory judgment filed by four aggrieved members of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL).
In a six-page ruling, the Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Civil Law Court, said the Court cannot entertain the petition for declaratory judgment because it lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter and the parties.
The petition for declaratory judgment was filed by aggrieved PUL members Mae Azango, Alloysius Makor, Charles Coffey, and Musa Kenneh.
The four PUL aggrieved members filed the petition for declaratory judgment, challenging the execution of the Mandate/Ruling of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court by the Interim Leadership Committee of the PUL.
The Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, J. Boima Kontoe, had mandated the Interim Leadership Committee headed by Peter Quaqua to conduct a rerun of the PUL controversial November 2022 election after nullifying the results because of violations of the PUL Constitution.
However, aggrieved PUL members Mae Azango and Alloysius contended that the Interim Leadership Committee denied their rights to participate in the election, arguing it was a fresh election and not a rerun election, a position dismissed both by Judge Kontoe and now Judge Smith.
Coffey and Kanneh joined the Azango and Makor petition for declaratory judgment, claiming that their full membership status was downgraded to affiliate membership by the PUL Interim Leadership Committee.
The ruling by Judge George Smith, which was rendered on late Wednesday, March 5, 2025, represents a significant legal boost to the work of the erstwhile Interim Leadership Committee of the PUL and solidifies the legitimacy of the democratically-elected leadership of the PUL, headed by Julius Kanubah.
Judge Smith’s ruling is a result of the motion to dismiss filed on October 8, 2025 by lawyers of the PUL Interim Leadership Committee, a motion that was argued pro and con on January 23, 2025.
Meanwhile, lawyers of the four aggrieved PUL members have announced that they will take an appeal to the Supreme Court even though their earlier efforts seeking a writ of prohibition from Justice in Chambers, Yarmin Quiqui Gbeissay, in order to stop the conduct of the PUL September 2024 rerun election, was constructively declined.
The aggrieved PUL members’ lawyers include Cllr. P. Alphonsus Zeon, Attorneys-At-Law Samwar Fallah and Alpha Daffae Senkpeni, whose attempts to stop the conduct of the PUL rerun election and the induction of the democratically-elected leadership of the PUL were also rejected by Judge Golda A. Bonah Elliot, previously presiding Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Civil Law Court of Montserrado County.
In the PUL controversial 2022 November election, Zeon served as Chief Campaign Strategist of defeated PUL presidential candidate, Daniel Nyakonah, while Alpha Senkpeni was the Campaign Manager.
Nyakonah, who currently works in the Communications Department of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, has allegedly been leading a smear campaign along with Mae Azango against the PUL, claiming that the leadership is illegitimate, a position that has again been dismissed by another Judge.
