The Chambers Justice at the Supreme Court, Yusif D. Kaba has given the Management of Gracious Ride Transport Service a five-day ultimatum to provide every title document of its vehicles.
The ultimatum was issued on Monday, April 1, 2024, following a decision made by Justice Kaba during a conference held with lawyers representing the Assets Recovery Team and Gracious Ride lawyers.
On March 28, 2024, the Assets Recovery Task Force in a search to recover government assets, impounded vehicles belonging to Gracious Ride Transport, which is reportedly owned by former Chief of Protocol Nora Finda Bundo.
The team contended that funds used to purchase said vehicles was allegedly stolen by the former chief of protocol from the government of Liberia through the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs.
Speaking in an interview with judicial reporters on the grounds of the Temple of Justice minutes after the conference, Cllr. Edwin Kla Martin said the capacity of the Gracious Ride was challenged on grounds that it does not have legal standing to pursue such a legal battle.
He further revealed that the legal capacity to include all relevant and title documents to enable them prove that the vehicles were bought through the rightful channel was requested.
As it stands, the burden of proof has been shifted from the Assets Recovery team to the management of Gracious Ride to prove claims and counterclaims made against them by the Presidential Asset Recovery Team.
Cllr. Martin termed the Gracious Ride complaint against the Presidential Asset Recovery team as false.
Martin assured Liberians that those in violation when caught will face the full weight of the law in keeping with President’s Boakai mandate that of ‘no business as usual.’
The court on Thursday, March 28, placed a stay order on the Assets Recovery Team not to carry out any further seizure, until a pending conference into a petition for a Writ of Prohibition filed by the Management of Gracious Ride Incorporated is looked into.
The Management of Gracious Ride Transport, a transport service, ran to the Chambers Justice at the Supreme Court to prohibit the Asset Recovery Team from seizing her vehicles offering transport services in the country.
