MONROVIA — After months of legal battles, political standoffs, and a final constitutional reckoning, Montserrado County Representative Richard Nagbe Koon was on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, overwhelmingly elected as Speaker of the 55th Legislature following the resignation of Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa.
Koon secured 43 votes, defeating Nimba County Representative Musa H. Bility, who garnered 26, in the vote on Capitol Hill that followed months of bitter political wrangling. The election marked the official close of a months-long speakership dispute that had paralyzed the Legislature.
The resignation of Koffa—a Grand Kru County lawmaker and opposition figure—on Monday, May 12, set the stage for the vote. He cited a deteriorating security environment and deepening factionalism as factors influencing his decision, despite a recent Supreme Court ruling affirming his legitimacy and invalidating previous attempts to install Koon through irregular legislative processes.
“I can’t negotiate the law,” Koffa told reporters in a press stakeout shortly after his resignation. “If I resign, that’s the inevitable part of the law — that a new Speaker has to be elected. The vacancy is created.”
Koffa denied receiving any financial inducement to vacate the post, amid swirling rumors that the Executive Branch had offered him a deal. Instead, he said he only requested the long-delayed payment of salaries and benefits owed to his legislative allies. “Before the ruling, if I had withdrawn my case and I wanted to sell it, that was the ideal time,” Koffa said. “Not now.”
His departure ends a tumultuous chapter in Liberia’s legislative history. For months, Liberia had two parallel Houses operating: one led by Koffa, and another self-styled “majority bloc” led by Koon.
In an April 23 ruling, the Supreme Court declared Koon’s prior claim to the Speakership unconstitutional and voided all legislative actions taken under his direction, including the passage of the 2025 national budget. The Court affirmed that, under Articles 33 and 49 of the 1986 Constitution, only the elected Speaker—or in his absence, the Deputy Speaker—can preside over sessions with a quorum.
“Speaker Koffa not being absent to preside over plenary sessions, the Deputy Speaker or any representative… could not legally preside,” the Court ruled. “Any action or sitting by the majority to the exclusion of the Speaker… is unconstitutional and without the appeal of the law.”
The ruling declared the existence of a second, parallel plenary as illegal and nullified major acts taken by Koon’s bloc, including salary withholdings, budget enactments, and attempts to recall ECOWAS lawmakers. The Court also dismissed a legal opinion from the Attorney General that had sought to validate Koon’s earlier actions.
Despite the legal rebuke, Koon, an outspoken supporter of President Joseph Boakai’s Unity Party, remained defiant. Even before Tuesday’s formal election, he had publicly declared himself the “regime Speaker,” vowing to align the House’s agenda with the Boakai administration.
“Today, I am the regime Speaker of the Republic of Liberia, and I am 100 percent supporting His Excellency Joseph Nyumah Boakai,” Koon said in February. “No Speaker from the opposition will promote our agenda.”
Critics denounced the statement as dangerously partisan. Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe, political leader of the Liberia People’s Party, condemned the remarks as a violation of democratic norms. “These lawmakers have desecrated the sanctity of their offices,” Gongloe said during a broadcast of Spoon Talk. “They deserve no privileges and no impunity.”
Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe of Bomi County echoed those concerns, accusing the Koon-led bloc of hypocrisy. “It is appalling that those who criticized everything done by their predecessors are now committing even greater wrongs than those they demonized yesterday,” he said.
With Koffa out and Koon now elected through a constitutionally sanctioned process, some observers hope the Legislature can begin to heal. But tensions remain high, and the scars of the crisis are deep.
In his post-resignation remarks, Koffa announced plans to publish a memoir titled “From 1 to 73: The Conspiracy at the Capitol,” a thinly veiled reference to the full membership of the House and what he characterizes as a deliberate effort to undermine his leadership.
He also called for international investigators to probe the arrest and continued detention of some of his staff at Monrovia Central Prison, describing the case as politically motivated.
As Koon prepares to take full control of the Speakership, he faces not only the challenge of unifying a deeply divided House but also restoring public trust in a Legislature many Liberians now view as an arena for partisan warfare rather than national service.
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