The Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh, has charged Monrovia City Mayor John Charuk Siafa to apply the City Ordinance Law without fear or favor to clean the city of plastic wastes and the disease prone garbage.
Chief Justice Yuoh made the comment on Monday, June 16, 2025, at the formal opening of the Civil Law Court in Monrovia.
Yuoh said, there are laws on the book governing city ordinance, and the mayor ‘only needs to make the laws effective.’
“We have laws on the book called littering and loitering. These laws go with penalty, if violated. If you see a marketer selling water on the streets, and there are plastic or dirt all around them; you must apply the law if said marketer refused to clean their environment,” the Chief Justice charged.
She informed Siafa, who was a guest at the opening ceremony of the court that the court will compel individuals to pay fine for littering the streets of Monrovia.
She stated: “I am sure the mayor of Monrovia and other mayors across the country know that there are laws against littering and loitering. So, Mr. Mayor, do your work; that’s all I can say. There is a law that can back your action. If you stay within the confines of your authority and apply the law against littering, if anyone brings you to court, we will back you.”
The Chief Justice noted that the Supreme Court has never sided with any party when the Ministry of Public Works prohibits individuals from building on an alley.
According to her, the court always ordered the demolition of buildings in alleys. “If the Ministry of Public Works as a professional entity comes and say this is an alley don’t build in it, the court will listen to the ministry, ruled in its favor and orders the demolition of said property,” she told the crowded ceremony.
Meanwhile, the Assigned Judge of the Civil Law Court, George W. Smith, in a brief remark, cautioned Mayor Siafa to observe the environmental and sanitation laws created to make the country, Africa’s oldest independent nation, the cleanest and an example for others to follow.
Judge Smith also charged the City Mayor to distribute ‘garbage buckets’ all around the communities and other public areas to avoid excuses from residents to the court to apply the law on anyone who violates the environmental and sanitation law.
Smith called on the Mayor Siafa to plead with President Joseph Boakai to put enough money in the budget for the cleaning of the city.
The Judge is of the belief that the President will fully support the cleaning of the country as “this sanitation process is part of the President’s ARREST agenda.”
While delivering the charge for the opening of the court, Cllr. Scheaplor R. Dunbar, presiding Judge of the Civil Law Court, frowned on the
constructions of commercial buildings on wetlands and
waterways, which he said, have contributed to the continuous flooding in various communities.
He said, the Environmental Protection Agency Act of 2002 empowers the EPA to identify projects, activities, policies and programs for which environment impact assessments must be conducted and review and approved.
Judge Dunbar said, the EPA Act defines environmental impact assessment as a systematic examination of a project or activity that may have adverse
and/or significant impact on the environment.
“Very too often, we see large construction activities going in areas that are clearly wetlands or on waterways. We wonder whether the EPA conducts environmental impact assessment studies before such projects are allowed to proceed. Whenever
construction
activities are permitted on waterways and wetlands; we are obviously creating the necessary condition for flooding whenever it rains heavily. Why should the EPA and other line agencies allow people to build huge commercial structures on wetlands and waterways when they know the minute it rains, the whole area will be flooded,” the Judge rhetorically stated.
He meanwhile, urged the EPA and other line agencies to be vigilant in their statutory duty of protecting the environment and taking the necessary actions to prevent
flooding.
The Judge was primarily challenges the court and the LAA continue to face in conducting investigative and cadastral surveys in
ejectment cases pending before the court.