MONROVIA — When Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr. rose to open the Supreme Court’s October Term on Monday, he did not deliver a routine ceremonial charge. He delivered an indictment of the jury system itself.

By Rodney D. Sieh

Jury manipulation, he told the courtroom at the Temple of Justice, was eroding the administration of justice in civil and criminal matters alike. He pointed to reported tampering in Nimba, Grand Gedeh, Bomi and Margibi counties, in cases ranging from rape to drug trafficking. Then he turned to the most politically charged trial in the country: the US$6.2 million economic sabotage case against former Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah Jr. and others. The post-trial inquiry conducted by Criminal Court “C” Judge Ousman F. Feika, the Chief Justice said, had established “gross jury tampering.”

“A corrupt jury is worse than no jury at all,” he declared, calling on the Legislature, the Liberian National Bar Association, the Law Reform Commission and the Liberian people to consider abolishing trial by jury.

The remarks have set off a wave of reaction in law offices, on radio talk shows and across social media. But beneath the larger argument over whether Liberia should keep its juries lies a narrower and more urgent question, one with direct consequences for the Tweah case: by publicly characterizing findings that are now under appeal, has the Chief Justice compromised the appearance of his impartiality — and should he step aside if the matter reaches his bench?

A verdict under appeal

On May 8, a 15-member jury returned a split verdict, acquitting Tweah and one co-defendant while convicting three others of theft and criminal facilitation. Judge Feika later set the verdict aside following an inquiry into alleged juror misconduct and ordered a new trial.

Defence lawyers have appealed that decision. Tweah himself has said he will not join the appeal; his co-defendants have signed on.

At the heart of the challenge is a question of proof. The inquiry reportedly established that jurors had mobile phones in their possession. The defence argues that this falls short of showing the phones were used to influence jurors or interfere with the verdict.

The distinction matters. Possessing a prohibited device, communicating with outsiders and actually corrupting a verdict are separate factual and legal questions. Evidence of the first does not automatically establish the second or the third. The defence has also questioned the identities and voting records of the jurors found with phones — a claim that will have to be tested against the official jury record and the inquiry’s findings.

These are precisely the issues an appellate bench must decide independently, weighing the evidence, the law and the reasons Judge Feika gave for vacating the verdict. That is why the Chief Justice’s words carry such weight. Spoken by the head of the Judiciary from the Supreme Court bench, “gross jury tampering” does not sound like commentary. It sounds like a finding.

The Chief Justice’s own standard

Gbeisay has been here before — on the other side of the argument, and in this very case.

In January 2025, sitting as Chamber Justice, he ordered the then-presiding trial judge in the Tweah prosecution to recuse himself over remarks the prosecution said were prejudicial. The Supreme Court, he said at the time, was appalled by the judge’s statements. He went further, laying down a test: a judge’s perceived bias, real or implied, is sufficient grounds for recusal, and where a judge’s words and actions lead a party reasonably to believe it will not receive a fair trial, the judge should step aside for the sake of transparency and justice. Judges, he reminded the bench, must not only be impartial but must also appear to be impartial.

By that measure, the defendants now challenging Judge Feika’s ruling may argue they have reasonable grounds to doubt that the Chief Justice can approach their appeal with an open mind.

The Judiciary itself drew a similar line only months ago. In May, responding to reports that the Chief Justice had ordered an investigation into alleged jury tampering in the Tweah case, the Judiciary issued a strong denial. Its statement stressed that the Chief Justice does not interfere in criminal proceedings or initiate inquiries into jury deliberations in cases pending before the courts. Monday’s remarks sit uneasily alongside that assurance.

What the canons say

Liberia’s own judicial standards offer a starting point. Judicial Canon Ten, published on the Judiciary’s official website, requires a judge to be temperate, attentive and impartial, and diligent in ascertaining the facts. Canon Eleven, which deals with avoiding impropriety, restricts judicial commentary on current news and matters of general public interest. Both reflect a long-standing principle: public confidence in the courts depends on judicial restraint.

Other jurisdictions are more explicit. Rule 2.10(A) of the American Bar Association’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct bars judges from public statements that “might reasonably be expected to affect the outcome or impair the fairness” of a pending or impending case. The American rule is not binding in Liberia, but it illustrates a standard widely shared across common-law systems, from which Liberia’s own jurisprudence descends.

None of this suggests a judge may not speak out against jury tampering. Protecting the integrity of trials is a core judicial duty. The concern is narrower: whether the head of the Judiciary can characterize the findings in a specific, contested case in definitive terms and then sit in judgment on those same findings.

A bench running short

The question is complicated by arithmetic. The two female Associate Justices on the Supreme Court have already recused themselves from the matter. Should the Chief Justice follow, the Court would face pressing questions about the composition of the bench and whether it can muster a quorum.

The Judiciary Law anticipates such situations. Section 2.7 governs the disqualification of Supreme Court justices, while Section 2.8 provides for reconstituting a quorum through ad hoc appointments when more than two justices cannot sit on a pending case. How those provisions apply will depend on the actual recusal orders and the procedural posture of the appeal.

But practical difficulty cannot settle a question of principle. The law provides a route to constitute a bench; the need to fill seats cannot by itself determine whether a particular justice should occupy one.

The larger debate

The Chief Justice’s scepticism about juries is not new. At his confirmation hearing, he argued that Liberia was the only country in West Africa where jury trials were mandatory and called for the Constitution to be revisited on the issue. Other judges have voiced similar views. Civil Law Court Judge Kennedy Peabody has argued for abolishing jury trials to curb corruption, and in August, opening the criminal courts’ term, Judge Banwon described the jury as the most vulnerable link in the justice chain and proposed a national conversation on its future.

Yet abolition is no simple reform. Trial by jury is a fundamental right under Article 21(h) of the 1986 Constitution, which guarantees an accused person a speedy, public and impartial trial by a jury of the vicinity unless the right is expressly waived. Removing it would require a constitutional amendment, not a policy decision by the courts.

Critics also warn about what would replace juries. A lawyer who spoke to FrontPageAfrica on condition of anonymity, citing fear of retribution, argued that shifting verdicts entirely to judges, without confronting allegations of corruption on the bench, could further erode public trust. Remove the jury, the argument runs, and the judge becomes the sole gatekeeper of guilt and innocence.

Meanwhile, defendants are not abandoning juries. In the Saudi rice diversion case now before Criminal Court “C”, former officials have demanded a full 15-member panel — the same strategy used in the Tweah trial. And the Supreme Court is still weighing a separate dispute over the dissolution of the jury in the Capitol arson trial. The jury question, in other words, is before the Court in more ways than one.

The question that remains

The Chief Justice may sincerely believe that jury tampering threatens Liberia’s justice system, and he may be right. But judicial impartiality is measured not only by the absence of actual bias; it also depends on whether a reasonable observer could doubt a judge’s ability to weigh a disputed matter afresh.

Recusal is not a punishment, nor an admission of bias. It is a safeguard — for the parties, for the integrity of the proceedings and for the credibility of the Court.

Liberia can investigate jury tampering rigorously and debate the future of the jury system openly. What it cannot afford is a Supreme Court ruling on the Tweah appeal that half the country believes was decided on Monday morning, in the Chief Justice’s opening address.

The issue is not whether jury tampering should be condemned. It is whether the man who has publicly condemned it in this case can now judge it. That question deserves a clear answer — grounded in Liberia’s judicial canons, its law on disqualification and the constitutional promise of impartial justice.

MONROVIA – Liberia’s most influential Christian body has called on the government, the courts and the country’s political class to keep politics out of the courtroom, days after a jury convicted a former foreign minister and other ex-officials of stealing rice donated by Saudi Arabia for disaster victims.

By Rodney D Sieh

In a statement issued Tuesday titled “Justice Without Political Interference; Reconciliation Without Impunity,” the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) said it “neither determines guilt nor dictates the outcome” of the case, but insisted that justice be “governed by evidence and law, free from political interference, intimidation, and public pressure.”

“No one should be prosecuted because of personal hatred or political opposition, or escape lawful accountability through political influence,” said the Council, which is led by Rev. Dr. Samuel Broomfield Reeves, Jr., who also serves as vice president of the Inter-Religious Council of Liberia.

A verdict that split the jury, and the country

The statement follows a mixed verdict delivered Friday, October 9, at Criminal Court “C” in Monrovia. According to the Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval Taskforce (AREPT), which prosecuted the case, the jury found eight of the 13 defendants guilty, including former Foreign Affairs Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah and former Internal Affairs Minister Varney A. Sirleaf. Three were acquitted, and verdicts on two others were inconclusive.

Kemayah was reported guilty on all five counts: theft of property, economic sabotage, misapplication of entrusted property, abuse of office and criminal conspiracy. But the jury was far from united. Four of the 12 jurors reportedly voted to acquit him of theft, and four voted against conviction on both economic sabotage and conspiracy; only the abuse-of-office count was unanimous.  

Former National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) chief Henry O. Williams was reported not guilty on all charges, a notable outcome given that his agency was responsible for storing and distributing the rice. Charges against Mary Broh, the former head of the General Services Agency and one-time acting mayor of Monrovia, were dropped by the Justice Ministry in August.  

Jurors were reportedly seen wearing masks to hide their identities during the trial, an indication of the pressure surrounding a case involving some of the most recognizable figures from Liberia’s previous government.

Rice meant for the vulnerable

The case centers on a humanitarian gift. In 2023, Saudi Arabia donated 29,412 bags of rice, valued at about US$500,000, for disaster victims and vulnerable Liberians. The indictment alleged that 25,054 of those bags were unlawfully diverted or misapplied. Rice is Liberia’s staple food, and the alleged diversion of aid in one of West Africa’s poorest nations has made the case a lightning rod for public anger over corruption.

Kemayah, who helped secure the donation while serving as foreign minister, has consistently denied stealing, receiving or misappropriating the rice. His defense argued that the financial side of the donation was handled directly by Saudi humanitarian authorities and the supplier, not by him.  

The prosecution grew out of President Joseph Boakai’s anti-corruption drive after he defeated incumbent George Weah in the 2023 election. Kemayah and Sirleaf both served in Weah’s cabinet, and supporters of the defendants have increasingly cast the trials as politically motivated.

‘Score-settling masquerading as justice’

That charge was sharpened on Monday when one of the convicted officials, former NDMA official and ordained Baptist minister Rev. Rosetta L. Gbassay Bowah, rejected her verdict on Facebook. She alleged that prosecutors had persistently pressed her to become a state witness, a claim her post offered no evidence for and which has not been independently verified. She warned that Liberia risks a cycle of vengeance, political persecution and “score-settling masquerading as justice.”  

The government sees it differently. AREPT welcomed the verdicts as a significant milestone in the fight against corruption, and its chairman, Cllr. Edwin Kla Martin, said the taskforce was ready to defend the convictions if defendants appeal to the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice questions jury system

The Council’s call for judicial independence also lands amid a fresh controversy over how Liberia’s courts reach verdicts. Opening the Supreme Court’s October Term on Monday, Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr. said jury manipulation was eroding justice in civil and criminal cases, declaring that “a corrupt jury is worse than no jury at all.” He cited suspected interference in proceedings at Criminal Court “C,” the same court that heard the rice case.

The Liberia National Bar Association condemned tampering but said its participation in any review should not be read as support for abolition, while Senator Darius Dillon argued that removing jury trials would require a national referendum.

Reconciliation ‘not a shield’

The LCC’s statement reaches beyond the courtroom to a sensitive national theme. Liberia is still grappling with the legacy of civil wars that killed an estimated 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003, and debates over accountability and forgiveness remain raw.

“Reconciliation must not become a shield for wrongdoing,” the Council said. “Forgiveness cannot erase the need for accountability, and accountability must never become an instrument of revenge.”

Recalling the country’s “painful history,” the churches warned that “justice pursued without fairness can deepen division, while peace pursued without accountability can preserve injustice.”

The Council urged public officials, political parties, the media and citizens not to prejudge the case or pressure the courts. “Public scrutiny is legitimate; political interference is not,” it said, and called on congregations to “reject hateful rhetoric” and encourage peaceful dialogue.

“Let the courts follow the evidence, the Government respect the law, and the Church speak the truth,” the statement concluded.

ABUJA, Nigeria — Liberian lawyer and law professor Charlyne M. Brumskine was elected president of the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Tuesday, a week after she was sworn in as one of five new judges on the regional bench.

By Rodney D. Sieh

Her fellow judges chose her on 13 October 2026 to lead the Abuja-based court, the judicial arm of the West African bloc, for a two-year term. The election makes Justice Brumskine, the first Liberian woman to sit on the court, the head of an institution that rules on disputes between member states, ECOWAS institutions and individuals, including human rights complaints brought by ordinary citizens of the region.

“With profound humility and a deep sense of duty, I address you as the newly elected President of this distinguished judicial institution,” she said in her acceptance address.

“I am sincerely grateful to my esteemed colleagues for the confidence they have each reposed in me. I accept this responsibility fully conscious of the obligations it entails and the expectations that accompany leading a regional judicial institution entrusted with interpreting and applying community law and protecting human rights.”

She said she saw the presidency as a duty rather than an honour. “I regard this office not as a personal distinction, but as an opportunity to serve the courts, the ECOWAS community, and ultimately the people of West Africa,” she said.

What the president does

As president, Justice Brumskine presides over the court’s hearings and deliberations and directs its judicial business, including assigning cases and scheduling proceedings.

She also chairs the Bureau of the Court, which sets its strategic direction, work programme and budget priorities, and she oversees the Registry and the court’s administration.

Beyond the courtroom, she is the court’s public face. She represents it externally, presents its activity report and budget to the statutory bodies of ECOWAS, and works with national judiciaries, other regional and continental courts, bar associations and civil society groups to widen access to justice.

A central part of that role is persuading member states to comply with and enforce the court’s judgments, a long-standing challenge for the institution, which has no enforcement arm of its own and depends on national governments to carry out its rulings.

A court open to citizens

Established under ECOWAS treaty provisions and operational since 2001, the court interprets and applies the bloc’s laws and settles disputes over them. Its reach widened significantly in 2005, when a supplementary protocol allowed individuals to bring human rights cases directly before it without first exhausting remedies in their national courts.

That feature has made the court one of the most accessible regional human rights forums in Africa. Citizens, journalists and civil society groups have used it to challenge arbitrary detention, restrictions on free expression and other alleged abuses by their own  governments.

Justice Brumskine takes office at a delicate moment for the bloc. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, all under military rule, formally withdrew from ECOWAS in January 2025, placing their citizens outside the court’s jurisdiction and testing the community’s cohesion.

Five new judges sworn in

Justice Brumskine was among five judges inducted on Tuesday, 6 October, at the ECOWAS Commission headquarters in Abuja for the 2026–2030 term. Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, administered the oath of office.

The other new judges are Désiré Henri Aihou of Benin, Awa Bah of The Gambia, Henrietta Uzoamaka Didigu of Nigeria and Yaouza Ouro-Sama of Togo.

They replace five judges whose four-year mandates have ended: Ricardo Cláudio Monteiro Gonçalves of Cape Verde, Sengu Mohamed Koroma of Sierra Leone, Dupe Atoki of Nigeria, Gberi-Bè Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire and Edward Amoako Asante of Ghana.

The judges elect a president and a vice-president from among themselves, each serving a two-year term.

‘Institutions endure’

In her address, Justice Brumskine described the handover from the outgoing to the incoming judges as a moment of “continuity, renewal and collective responsibility.” She said the new leadership must build on the foundations laid by its predecessors rather than start afresh.

“Today’s transition reminds us that the institutions endure beyond the individuals who serve them,” she said.

She paid tribute to past presidents and outgoing judges, saying their experience and contribution to the court’s case law would underpin the work ahead.

The incoming judges have received handover notes, reports on the state of the court and legal and administrative records, which she said would be reviewed carefully to ensure continuity in governance and operations.

“These documents represent more than formal records. They provide a basis of understanding the institution’s current position, ongoing responsibilities, operational challenges, and priorities requiring our attention,” she said.

She pledged to lead with “seriousness, openness and a commitment to responsible institutional stewardship.”

‘Liberia can reciprocate’

For Liberians, the appointment carries particular weight. ECOWAS sent its ECOMOG peacekeeping force into Liberia in 1990, during the country’s civil war, and helped broker the 2003 Accra peace agreement that ended 14 years of conflict.

Justice Brumskine drew on that history in her remarks.

“The concept of regional justice and rule of law is not new to Liberia. ECOWAS played a role in Liberia’s recovery to peace. Now Liberia has the opportunity to reciprocate justice by sending one of its own to the Court,” she said.

“This distinction is not about me but the collective good of the region. I am proud that Liberia has been given the opportunity to lead this regional judicial institution. I will serve with excellence.”

Lawyer, teacher, politician

Justice Brumskine brings more than two decades of legal experience to the post. She founded the Monrovia-based CMB Law Group, is licensed to practise in Liberia, New York and Washington, D.C., and has taught at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia.

She has also worked on public policy, including an anti-human trafficking framework with Liberia’s Ministry of Justice and the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization.

In 2023, she was the vice-presidential running mate of opposition leader Alexander Cummings of the Collaborating Political Parties. She is the daughter of the late Charles Walker Brumskine, a prominent lawyer and four-time presidential candidate who died in 2019.

Two Liberian men, Micah Wilkins Wright and Yussif D. Kaba, have previously served on the ECOWAS Court.

For Liberia, her election places the country at the head of a regional institution whose credibility rests on its independence, the quality of its judgments and, above all, on whether member states respect them.

WASHINGTON, DC — A Liberian senator has told American democracy advocates that his country faces two threats at once: multinational mining companies working through legal deals, and drug cartels working through bribes. He said either one could hollow out Liberia’s democracy from within if it is left unchecked.

By Rodney D. Sieh

Senator Amara M. Konneh is an independent lawmaker from Gbarpolu County in northwestern Liberia and chairs the Senate’s Public Accounts and Audit Committee. He spoke at a private roundtable hosted this month by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S.-funded

organization that supports democratic institutions abroad. His remarks are drawn from talking points prepared for the session and reviewed by FrontPageAfrica.

“Liberia is not yet a captured state,” Konneh said, “but we are at the most dangerous point since the war and Ebola.”

The West African nation of about 5.5 million people was founded in 1847 with the backing of freed American slaves. It is still recovering from a civil war that ended in 2003 and from the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic that killed nearly 5,000 Liberians.

‘Legal, so it’s harder’

Konneh said mining makes up 12 percent of Liberia’s gross domestic product and 65 percent of its export earnings. Yet less than 3 percent of that wealth reaches communities directly.

The problem, he argued, starts with the way concessions are negotiated. Liberian law gives the executive branch wide discretion over Mineral Development Agreements. These 25-year contracts are ratified by the legislature and are very hard to amend later. “Companies negotiate with three or four people in Monrovia, not with the country,” he said.

He pointed out that several major operators are renegotiating rail, port and royalty terms at the same time: steelmaker ArcelorMittal, gold miner Bea Mountain, Hummingbird and Bao Chico. On paper Liberia keeps 48 percent of mining value, he said, but stabilization clauses, tax holidays and transfer pricing push the real share far lower.

He also described a system of off-budget signature bonuses and “social contributions,” often paid around elections. He said legislators from mining districts are offered jobs, scholarships and “facilitation fees” of $5,000 to $20,000 to vote for ratification. “This is legalized state capture,” he said. He did not tie any particular company to these payments.

He also warned that private security forces at some concessions are larger and better equipped than the county police. And he said community activists who protested environmental damage have been charged with “economic sabotage.” His examples included Kinjor in Grand Cape Mount County, the community most affected by Bea Mountain’s gold concession, as well as communities in Grand Bassa and Nimba.

‘Illegal, so it’s faster’

The drug trade follows “the same playbook, different commodity,” Konneh said. Traffickers don’t need to buy the whole state, only key people: “an airport baggage handler, an evidence clerk, a police crime services officer, and a port scanner operator.”

He cited two seizures this year. In June, 237 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $19.2 million were seized at Roberts International Airport, the country’s main airport. In July, 3.9 metric tons worth about $317 million were seized in Duazon, outside the capital, Monrovia. He said the July haul had links to Spain, Colombia, Serbia, Croatia and Ukraine, and that its value was four times Liberia’s national health budget.

He also pointed to cases inside the country’s own anti-drug agency. On September 29, a court in Margibi County convicted Joe Logan and Lovette Flowers, two agents of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA), of colluding with traffickers, and sentenced each to the maximum 20 years. They had resold cocaine seized at the airport. Konneh said a police Commissioner for Crime Services was also dismissed after admitting to taking a $10,000 bribe in the same network.

Konneh also raised the most politically sensitive case. Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor was arrested at the airport and charged on August 19 with conspiracy, facilitation and money laundering. She denies the charges. Konneh criticized the government for destroying the 3.9 tons of cocaine before trial. He predicted the case could collapse over constitutional warrant defects or chain-of-custody problems. If it does, he said, “the public will conclude it’s politics, not justice.”

He placed Liberia within a wider regional crisis. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 126.4 metric tons of cocaine were seized in or through West Africa between 2019 and 2024, including 30.8 tons in the Gulf of Guinea corridor along Liberia’s coast. The region has become “a destination market, not just a transit zone,” he said. He also described kush, a cheap synthetic drug blend that first spread in Sierra Leone and now reaches Liberia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia and Senegal, mostly among unemployed young people.

Why Washington should care

Konneh framed the issue as a test of American credibility. He said Liberia voted with the United States 89 percent of the time at the United Nations last year and hosts the largest U.S. diplomatic presence in West Africa.

“If Liberians conclude that America only cares when there’s a big drug bust but stays silent when a $2 billion mining deal is signed behind closed doors, we lose credibility for democracy,” he said. “China and Russia don’t ask about beneficial ownership. Cartels don’t ask about human rights.”

He noted that Sweden closed its embassy in Monrovia last month. He also urged the European Union to keep its delegation in Liberia fully staffed rather than move its functions to Abidjan in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire.

The asks

At home, Konneh said, the Senate is working on several measures. On mining, it wants to require that all mining agreements, amendments, beneficial owners and payments be published before ratification. It also proposes independent valuation of iron ore transfer pricing, modeled on Botswana’s approach to diamonds, and sending 20 percent of royalties directly to district development funds.

On drugs, the proposals would require that seized evidence be kept until final judgment. Officers at the airport, the Freeport of Monrovia and the security agencies would face polygraphs, lifestyle audits and drug tests. An unexplained-wealth law would allow assets to be seized without a criminal conviction.

From Washington, he asked for help that is “practical, not preachy”:

• Funding to monitor Liberia’s drug court and commercial court

• Forensic audits of the ArcelorMittal rail and port concession and of Bea Mountain’s royalties

• Resumed mentoring of vetted Liberian drug units by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, with oversight

• Equipment for scanners and sniffer dogs, including maintenance

• Help from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in tracing money in three or four specific cases

• A $10 million pilot program to track large cash donations ahead of the 2029 elections

He also urged that Global Magnitsky sanctions, the U.S. tool for penalizing corrupt officials and human rights abusers, be used “surgically.” Their targets should include enablers in mining licensing who move money into U.S. real estate, he said, and Washington should state publicly why it acts.

“Help us establish transparent regulations before finalizing agreements,” Konneh said, “and support impartial enforcement of laws after confiscation — whether the suspect is an airport baggage handler, a police crimes services director, a former Vice President, or a multinational corporation.”

MONROVIA – For four months, Liberians have treated this year’s two great cocaine seizures as one story. The airport bust came first, the record haul followed six weeks later, and officials spoke of a single network that had burrowed into the state for more than six years.

By Rodney D. Sieh

Investigators now say that picture is wrong.

“We haven’t identified yet any connection between 19M and 317M,” investigators told FrontPageAfrica this week. “Leroy Harris doesn’t have connections to [the] 317M [case].”

If that holds, Liberia is not fighting one cartel. It is fighting two, with different suppliers, different routes, different customers and different methods. It also helps explain one of the stranger features of the State’s case: the disappearance of George Wah “Leroy” Harris, the Paynesville bar owner the government publicly charged in the US$317 million probe in August, from the indictment that followed.

It does not explain everything. A close reading of both indictments shows threads that still run between the two cases, and questions the Ministry of Justice has yet to answer.

Case one: the airport pipeline

The first case broke on June 8 at Roberts International Airport (RIA). Screeners flagged six cargo boxes declared as Maggi cubes and lappas. Inside were 198 compressed plates of cocaine, 237.6 kilograms in all, valued at about US$19.2 million.

The shipment was going out, not coming in. According to the indictment, a logistics manager arranged for the boxes to fly Brussels Airlines to London Heathrow, consigned to Usman Ali at an address in Birmingham, England. Prosecutors say a similar four-box consignment, also declared as Maggi cubes and lappas, left on May 20 for US$1,400 in fees.

This is the network investigators describe as running Sierra Leone–Liberia–United Kingdom/Netherlands. FPA sources now tie it to Jos Leijdekkers, the Dutch fugitive whom authorities believe has been sheltering in Sierra Leone. A senior security official had earlier linked Leijdekkers to Liberia’s drug trade in general terms; investigators now place him with the airport pipeline specifically. Leijdekkers has not been charged in Liberia.

A Montserrado County grand jury indicted 10 defendants in the August Term of Criminal Court “C”: Harris; Paul Jamaal King; Philip Yeoh Jr.; Mohammed O. Gbowrah; former LDEA airport deputy commander Moses Jallah; Michael U.S. Brown, alias Rahim Bah; Polo Bah; Oscar J. Brown; Usman Ali; and an unidentified “private bar” entity or person.

Harris sits at the centre of the bribery allegations. Prosecutors say that after the seizure he offered LDEA agents US$100,000 to return the boxes, handed US$5,000 to Jallah at Private Bar, offered a warehouse in Sayon Town for storage, and told Jallah he owned a quarter of the drugs. Harris is in Monrovia Central Prison and is presumed innocent.

Case two: the sea route

The second case is a different animal. On July 21, a joint security team raided a compound on Cement Road in the VOA Community, off the RIA Highway. They found 3,971 plates of cocaine in 157 bags, which the State values at US$317.68 million.

Two foreigners were arrested on the spot: Johann David Garces Grajales, who holds Spanish and Colombian passports, and Srdan Seles, a Serbian. A third man, known only as Tom, allegedly slipped away before the raid.

This cocaine came in by sea. Prosecutors say it was landed from the Atlantic in May, carried by canoe up the Po River at Royesville through ground the group had secured in Bomi County, then trucked to the VOA house. The cover was a fishing business on the riverbank and a front airline, Afri-Connect Airlines, whose aircraft was bought in August 2025 and flew into Spriggs Payne.

Investigators describe this pipeline as Colombia–Brazil–Liberia–Ghana–Eastern Europe (Serbia, Croatia, Ukraine)–Dubai. The 55-page indictment, issued with an October 7 writ, names Nikola Ivancic as the cartel’s paymaster and puts the network’s political recruitment in a Dubai meeting.

Its reach is far wider than case one. The defendants include former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, former NSA deputy director Gerald Folley Smith, former airport operations chief Mark Kuiah, and a string of security officers. The charges run to 11 counts, including money laundering and weapons offences.

Where the two cases part

The differences are not cosmetic. They go to how each network made money.

* Direction. Case one was an export: cocaine already in Liberia leaving by air for Britain. Case two was an import and storage operation: a mother shipment landed by sea and held near the airport road.

* Scale. The VOA haul is nearly 17 times heavier and about 16 times more valuable than the airport seizure.

* Method. The airport network used ordinary commercial airfreight, false cargo declarations and small cash payments to handlers. The sea network bought land, boats, a plane and, prosecutors say, protection at the highest levels.

* People. Case one’s defendants are mostly Liberian logistics workers, airport hands and a UK consignee. Case two is run by foreign operators with Latin American and Balkan links, allegedly shielded by senior Liberian officials.

* Markets. One route ends in Britain and the Netherlands; the other fans out to Eastern Europe and the Gulf.

On that reading, the State’s treatment of Harris makes some sense. His alleged conduct — the US$100,000 offer, the US$5,000 payment, the claim to a quarter share — concerns the airport boxes. Prosecutors may simply have charged him where their evidence lies.

The Harris gap

But the record does not move in a straight line.

In early August, the Ministry of Information announced that Harris had been charged in the US$317 million probe. Security forces sealed Private Bar and searched it three times; management says nothing illegal was found. Harris was arraigned at the Monrovia City Court. Police said at the time that he had called security officials in the hours after the seizure to try to free the shipment.

On August 27, Criminal Court “C” issued its writ in the airport case, naming Harris. On October 7, the US$317 million indictment arrived. Harris is not in its caption, its counts or its narrative.

No one has told the public whether the August charge was withdrawn, merged into the airport case, or left pending.

That matters for a man in pre-trial detention: he is entitled to know which case is holding him.

The threads that remain

Investigators may be right that the two networks are distinct. Yet the 317M indictment itself keeps brushing against the smaller case.

Private Bar appears in both. The new indictment places the cartel’s introductory meeting for its front airline at Private Bar in Paynesville — Harris’s venue — while charging no one over it. Witnesses separately told FPA that Usman Ali, the airport case’s UK consignee, attended a birthday party for Harris and Michael Browne at the same bar on May 17.

The “19” in the voice notes. Among the State’s evidence against Howard-Taylor are WhatsApp exchanges with co-defendant Sheik Bashiru Kante. In them, prosecutors attribute to Kante references to “the 19 kilos” and “19 million.” If those words point to the airport seizure, the larger case’s own evidence invokes the smaller one.

The airport in the middle. Both cases run through RIA. The June boxes were caught there. The sea cartel allegedly paid Kuiah, then RIA’s operations chief, US$50,000 to smooth its path. Kuiah is named in the big indictment, though no count lists him, and he was dismissed after the airport seizure.

Leijdekkers and Sierra Leone. If the Dutch fugitive stands behind the airport pipeline, has Liberia asked Freetown and The Hague for help? The Inspector General promised in July to pursue suspects abroad through extradition and mutual legal assistance. The public has seen no request.

The 2022 shadow

Liberia has been here before. In 2022, a jury acquitted all four defendants in the US$100 million Freeport case, then the country’s largest, and all four left the country within a day.

Two indictments now stand where one case once seemed to. Whether they are two cartels or two halves of one is a question for evidence, not press briefings. But a prosecution that cannot say clearly who belongs in which case will hand defence lawyers their opening — and risk repeating 2022.

All defendants named in this report are presumed innocent unless proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.

MONROVIA – Judge Ousman F. Feika of Criminal Court “C” did not suspend Atty. Gbawou Kowou’s law license. That distinction matters.

By Rodney D. Sieh

In a ruling dated October 9, Judge Feika dismissed a complaint in which Kowou accused the State’s prosecutors of tampering with defense witnesses. He then referred Kowou to the Supreme Court’s Grievance and Ethics Committee, “with a strong recommendation that his law license be suspended for one calendar year for unethical and unprofessional conduct unbefitting of a lawyer.” 

Kowou remains a licensed lawyer. Whether he stays one is now a question for the Committee and, ultimately, the full bench of the Supreme Court.

How it started

The dispute grows out of the economic sabotage prosecution of former officials including Varney Sirleaf and Dee Maxwell Saah Kemayah. The case is brought by the Assets Recovery and Property Retrieval Task Force (AREPT), chaired by Cllr. Edwin K. Martin. Kowou represents co-defendant Wayfa Ciafa. 

On Sunday, October 4, members of the Group of 77 went to AREPT’s offices. Some of them had already testified for the defense. That night, Kowou went live on Facebook and called in to the Spoon Talk Show. He alleged that AREPT had summoned his witnesses to intimidate them into recanting.

The next day he filed a Bill of Information asking the court to investigate. The court halted the trial, sent the jury back to quarters and opened an inquiry that afternoon.

What the court found

The ruling rejects Kowou’s account on almost every point:

• Why the witnesses went. The witnesses went at the instance of Raymond K. Zarby, the Group’s senior administrator. Zarby testified that he misread AREPT’s invitation, which was meant for rebuttal witnesses.

• What happened when they arrived. AREPT asked them to leave once it realized some had already testified for the defense. Witnesses for both sides said no one was threatened, though their phones were taken at the door. AREPT described that as routine for all visitors.

• Kowou’s prior knowledge. Kowou knew of the visit in advance. A witness had called him, and he advised them to go. That undercut his claim that they went without his knowledge.

• Martin’s whereabouts. Martin was not on the premises. Kowou had testified that Martin ordered him beaten and dragged out.

• The scuffle. The video showed a scuffle that began when AREPT staff tried to stop Kowou from filming and live-streaming inside the compound.

The court called the tampering allegation “absolutely false and misleading.”

The real charge: going public

The ruling says plainly that raising witness tampering is not misconduct. Counsel who has credible information, the court said, “should promptly bring the matter before the Court.”

The court’s objection is to the order of events: the Facebook live stream and the talk show came first, and the formal filing came after. It also points to a gag order issued at the start of the trial, barring lawyers from discussing the case with the media.

The judge found that Kowou breached Rules 1, 18, 20 and 22 of the Code of Moral and Professional Ethics. Those rules cover:

• Rule 1: undermining the courts

• Rule 20: publicity about pending litigation

• Rule 22: asserting unproven matters as fact

“Criticism of a judicial decision and denigration of the judicial institution are not synonymous,” the ruling says.

Where the ruling is on firm ground

On procedure, Judge Feika did what the law asks. Article 75 of the Constitution gives the Supreme Court authority over the legal profession. The Judiciary Law gives it the power to censure, suspend, or remove lawyers. Judicial Canon 21, which the ruling cites, tells trial judges to correct unprofessional conduct and, where necessary, refer it to the Grievance and Ethics Committee.

A trial judge who believes a lawyer has misbehaved before him is expected to make that referral. Feika did.

The questions it leaves open

The ruling still raises issues the Committee and the public will weigh. 

Proportionality. A one-year suspension is a severe penalty. It would take Kowou out of every case he handles, not just this one. The conduct the ruling describes is publicity during a gag order and an allegation the court found unproven. Breach of a court’s own gag order is ordinarily a matter for contempt, and the ruling does not say why the court went straight to recommending a year off the roll.

Who judged the complaint? Kowou’s complaint was against the prosecuting party in a case the same court is trying. Courts routinely rule on such Bills of Information. Still, when a defense complaint against the prosecution is dismissed, and the complaining lawyer is then recommended for suspension, it raises a concern. Other defense lawyers may hesitate before raising similar complaints.

The “extreme circumstances” exception. By the ruling’s own account, Rule 20 allows that extreme circumstances may justify a public statement. Kowou will likely argue that a lawyer who believes his witnesses are being pressured faces exactly such circumstances. The court found the belief unfounded. The Committee will decide whether that makes the conduct sanctionable.

Where the ruling and Kowou agree. The ruling confirms that the witnesses’ phones were taken at AREPT’s door. It also confirms that AREPT staff physically tried to stop Kowou from filming. Neither amounts to tampering, but both help explain why a defense lawyer might have feared the worst. 

What comes next

The Grievance and Ethics Committee must now conduct its own investigation, with Kowou entitled to be heard. Its recommendation then goes to the full bench of the Supreme Court. Judge Feika’s recommendation does not bind the Committee, and the Supreme Court is not bound by the Committee’s.

Kowou is also on the defense team for former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor in a separate case before the same court. How the Supreme Court handles his referral will be watched closely by lawyers on both sides of Liberia’s most politically charged prosecutions.

MONROVIA – Liberia’s leaders and churches must not mistake the end of the war for the arrival of peace. That was the charge Rev. Dr. Samuel Reeves delivered from the pulpit of Providence Baptist Church on Sunday.

By Rodney D. Sieh

“Listen, church, listen, Liberia, the first generation after conflict must not be satisfied merely because the guns became silent,” Reeves said. “Silence is not the same as reconciliation. Stability is not the same as justice.”

In a sermon billed as “A Message for the Nation,” Reeves went further, singling out the economic yardstick the country has been using to measure progress. “Economic growth, and raising 1 billion dollars in revenue is not the same as human flourishing,” he said. “Institutional survival is not the same as institutional excellence.”

“A nation can rebuild roads and still need to rebuild trust”

Preaching from Philippians 3:9-11 on the theme “The Power of Resurrection Living: Living Beyond Our Fears,” Reeves framed Liberia’s recovery from civil war as a story of death and resurrection. He said the country “knows what it means to pass through a Friday.”

He pointed to the 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which called the nation toward reconciliation, democracy and good governance. “That is resurrection language,” he said. But he warned that resurrection “does not mean pretending the grave never existed. It means refusing to let the grave have the final word.”

“Healing is not amnesia. Reconciliation is not denial. Peace is not the absence of memory,” Reeves told the congregation.

He laid out what he called the nation’s unfinished work. “A nation can rebuild roads and still need to rebuild trust. A nation can construct buildings and still need to construct character. A nation can hold elections and still need to deepen citizenship.”

A call to ordinary citizens

Reeves credited Liberia’s peace not to any single leader but to many hands: women who pressed for negotiations, faith and traditional leaders, teachers who returned to classrooms, and health workers who served through crisis. “God rarely raises a community through spectators,” he said.

He painted a picture of what he called “faith with skin on it.” He described a teacher telling children their circumstances do not determine their possibilities, and a young entrepreneur creating jobs rather than waiting for them. He also pointed to “a civil servant refusing corruption because righteousness matters more than personal gain.”

He also challenged the church itself, calling for “a church that refuses to compete for influence while communities struggle for hope.” He urged universities to teach young people “not simply how to find employment, but how to think, serve, lead, create, and rebuild.”

“Resurrection requires participation”

Reeves closed with a message aimed at both the nation and individuals in the pews. “Your history is real. Your wounds are real,” he said. “But your history is not your destiny.”

“God may open the tomb, but somebody has to walk out of it,” he said. “God may give the vision, but somebody has to build.”

His final words were addressed to the country: “So stand, Liberia. Stand in righteousness. Stand in grace. Stand in truth.”

MONROVIA – For months, Mark Egon Kuiah’s name has hovered over Liberia’s cocaine scandal without ever quite landing.

By Rodney D Sieh

He ran operations at Roberts International Airport, the country’s main gateway, where 198 plates of cocaine were found in June hidden in cargo declared as Maggi cubes and lappas. That seizure, valued at more than US$19 million, opened the first of this year’s drug cases. Weeks later, President Joseph Boakai dismissed Kuiah “with immediate effect” in a July 30 purge of security officials.

Now, the State has named him a defendant in its 55-page indictment in the far larger US$317 million case. But a FrontPageAfrica review of the document shows an unusual gap. Each of the 11 counts opens by listing the defendants it accuses. Kuiah’s name is in none of those lists, even though eight counts describe what he allegedly did.

What the indictment says he did

The State’s account of Kuiah is short and repeated almost word for word across eight counts. Caycee Nelson, the man prosecutors say managed the cartel’s front airline, “Afri-Connect Airlines,” recruited him. Kuiah allegedly asked for US$250,000 to help the operation through the airport and received US$50,000 up front. He was given two phones “for communication.”

He is also said to have recruited two aviation colleagues: F. Augustine Claudius Tamba, Deputy Director General of the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority, and Abner Wanah Yonly, Sr., manager of James Spriggs Payne Airfield. The indictment adds, in one paragraph, that the two “did not provide any support.” Neither is charged.

The State says Kuiah “knew and had reasons to know” the cartel planned to move cocaine through Liberia to Europe, and “accepted to provide the required assistance.”

What it does not say

The indictment never describes a single thing Kuiah did at the airport for the cartel. The cartel’s aircraft, bought in August 2025, landed at Spriggs Payne, not at Roberts International. The indictment does not allege it ever carried drugs. The cocaine seized at Cement Road, by the State’s own account, came in by sea and canoe up the Po River.

The sums are muddled too. One paragraph says Nelson handed Kuiah the US$50,000. The money-laundering count says it was paid by Jammel V. Jallah, through Christian L. Nyantee.

Even his job shifts. The caption calls him a former Deputy Director of Operations at the Civil Aviation Authority. Other paragraphs place him at Roberts International Airport. One calls him “Deputy Manager for Operations.” His name is spelled both Quiah and Kuiah. Government statements at the time of his dismissal described him as Deputy Director for Operations at RIA.

Then there is the charging language itself. Each count opens with a list of the defendants the grand jury finds probable cause against. Nikola Ivancic, Jewel Howard Taylor, Gerald Folley Smith, and others appear there, count after count. Kuiah’s name does not appear in any of those lists.

A defendant the counts leave out

Kuiah is a defendant. The caption names him, General Allegation 18 calls him “The Defendant Mark Quiah,” and the October 7 writ from Criminal Court “C” orders his arrest. The indictment’s closing clause applies to all the “hereinabove named defendants.”

But each count is meant to tell a defendant exactly what he is accused of. Here, eight counts describe Kuiah’s conduct while leaving him off the list of those the grand jury finds committed the offence. Defense lawyers can be expected to argue that he was indicted without being clearly charged in any count, and to seek to quash on that ground. Prosecutors are likely to answer that the caption, the general allegations and the closing clause are enough to put him on notice.

Whether the omission is a drafting slip, like the other errors FrontPageAfrica has documented in the indictment, or something more deliberate is an open question. It comes after weeks of talk that Kuiah has been helping investigators. In August, FrontPageAfrica reported that he had been giving investigators a considerable amount of information since his dismissal, and that he had not been arrested.

The Ministry of Justice has not said publicly whether Kuiah is a cooperating witness. He is not among the witnesses listed in the indictment, which names only three police officers and “documentary evidence.” FrontPageAfrica could not confirm whether he has been taken into custody since the writ was issued.

Kuiah’s July 29 appearance on an earlier police charge sheet followed a similar pattern. That document described a “Mark Quiah” as a friend brought in to help with aircraft operations in 2024. It did not list him among its 12 defendants.

The letter not in the file

One episode is absent from the indictment altogether. On July 13, while still at the airport, Kuiah signed a letter to the Liberia Maritime Authority as “registered agent” for Madris Group of Companies Incorporated. It asked that a cargo ship, the Comoros-flagged IB Atlantic IV, be allowed into the Freeport of Monrovia because it was “in distress at sea due to loss of engine performance.”

The Maritime Authority declined. The ship was later pursued by Liberian forces off Rivercess, amid unconfirmed reports that a smaller boat had approached it at sea. No link between the letter and any crime has been established, and Kuiah has not been charged over it.

The indictment makes no mention of the letter, the ship or Madris Group.

Kuiah has not commented publicly. He is presumed innocent, as are all those named in the indictment.

The bar owner who disappeared from the case

If Kuiah is a defendant, the counts leave out George Wah Harris, a man the government charged who is missing altogether.

Harris, also known as Leroy Harris, owns Private Bar Entertainment Center in Paynesville. In early August, the government announced at a Ministry of Information briefing that he had been charged in the US$317 million cocaine probe. The listed offences were possession, importation, trafficking, economic sabotage, money laundering, conspiracy, facilitation and solicitation.

Security forces searched his bar three times. Management said they found nothing illegal on any occasion. Harris was arraigned at the Monrovia City Court and sent to Monrovia Central Prison. On August 13, the Bureau of Corrections said he was still there and had been granted no judicial relief.

Yet the October 7 indictment in the US$317 million case does not mention Harris anywhere. Not in the caption, not in the counts, not in the narrative.

Instead, Harris turned up in the other case. On August 27, Criminal Court “C” issued a writ in the June airport seizure, the 198 plates found at Roberts International Airport. That indictment accuses Harris of offering US$100,000 to two Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency officers at the airport to recover the seized cocaine. It says he handed US$5,000 to one of them, Moses Jallah, at his bar.

The shift raises a question the government has not answered. Did investigators drop their claim that Harris was tied to the US$317 million haul, or is a separate charge still to come?

Readers should not confuse two other names in the new indictment. “Harris Ward” is a community in Royesville Township where prosecutors say the cocaine was stored, not a person. And the bar the indictment does mention is Private Bar in Paynesville, where the cartel allegedly held an introductory meeting for its airline. A man named there as the airline’s “Ground Handler,” Franklin Harberg (also spelled Herbert and Harbert), is not charged either.

One airport, two gaps

The two names point to the same weakness. Roberts International Airport sits at the center of Liberia’s drug crisis this year. It was the site of the June seizure, and it is the airport the cartel allegedly paid an insider to smooth its path through.

Yet in the case that names the airport’s own operations chief as a defendant, the counts themselves leave him out. And in that same case, a man the government publicly charged in August does not appear at all.

Monrovia – The Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) has kept its benchmark Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) unchanged at 16.0 percent but has raised the share of US dollar deposits commercial banks must keep in reserve, a move aimed at chipping away at the country’s heavy reliance on the greenback.

Rodney D. Sieh

The decision came out of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, and was announced in Communiqué No. 28, signed by Executive Governor and MPC Chairman Henry F. Saamoi.

Dollar reserves go up

The committee increased the reserve requirement ratio on US dollar deposits by two percentage points, from 10 percent to 12 percent. The requirement on Liberian dollar deposits stays at 25 percent.

The CBL also narrowed its interest-rate corridor. The Standing Deposit Facility (SDF), the rate banks earn when they park money with the CBL, moves from 6.5 to 6.0 percentage points below the policy rate. The Standing Credit Facility (SCF), the rate at which banks borrow from the CBL, moves from 1 to 0.5 percentage points above it. At the current 16 percent policy rate, that puts the deposit rate at 10 percent and the lending rate at 16.5 percent.

The bank said the changes are meant to strengthen how its policy decisions pass through to the economy, improve liquidity management and gradually reduce what it called the structural vulnerabilities tied to Liberia’s high level of financial dollarization.

Inflation falls, growth picks up

Headline inflation dropped to an estimated 4.5 percent in the third quarter, down from 5.4 percent in the previous quarter. The committee credited a more stable exchange rate, prudent monetary management and favorable domestic prices. Inflation is projected at about 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter, within the bank’s medium-term tolerance range.

Real GDP growth is projected at 5.5 percent for 2026, up from 5.1 percent in 2025, driven mainly by mining, manufacturing and services. The CBL’s Composite Index of Economic Activity gap widened from 0.8 percent to 2.7 percent, which the bank said points to greater use of productive capacity.

Broad money supply (M2) declined modestly during the quarter, which the CBL linked to the appreciation of the Liberian dollar.

Banks strong, but bad loans persist

The committee described the banking sector as stable and highly liquid. The Capital Adequacy Ratio stood at 38.64 percent, far above the 10 percent regulatory minimum, while the liquidity ratio rose to 58.71 percent against a 15 percent minimum.

But non-performing loans remain a worry at 13.38 percent, above the 10 percent prudential benchmark. The CBL warned that bad loans pose a significant medium-term risk to financial stability and limit banks’ ability to lend to productive sectors. It reaffirmed support for the National Strategy for Non-Performing Loan Resolution and related legal and judicial reforms.

The committee also noted that bank credit remains concentrated in trade, services and personal lending, and called for more financing for agriculture and manufacturing.

Debt, trade and reserves

Public debt fell from 49.6 percent to 43.3 percent of GDP, according to the communiqué. The external sector, however, showed strain: export earnings improved, but higher import payments widened the trade deficit.

Gross international reserves stood at 3.3 months of import cover, down from the previous quarter but still above the ECOWAS benchmark of three months.

Risks ahead

The CBL said risks are broadly balanced but tilted toward higher inflation. External risks include geopolitical tensions, rising global energy prices — Brent crude rose significantly during the quarter — commodity price swings and tighter global financing. At home, the bank pointed to bad loans, high dollarization, possible fiscal slippages and structural constraints on domestic production.

The committee said it stands ready to take further action if needed. Its next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20, 2027.

MONROVIA — Liberia’s special envoy for cultural and heritage diplomacy has been invited to the opening of a national memorial in Barbados honoring 570 enslaved West Africans buried at a former sugar plantation.

By Rodney D. Sieh

Ambassador Lorenzo Llewellyn Witherspoon received the invitation from the office of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley for the Nov. 28 opening of the Ancestral Memorial to the Enslaved at Newton, outside the capital, Bridgetown. Guests must confirm attendance by Oct. 23.

“Being personally invited by Prime Minister Mottley to witness this historic event is an important honor for Liberia and me personally,” Witherspoon said.

The ceremony falls two days before Barbados marks 60 years of independence and five years as a republic.

The memorial stands beside the Newton Enslaved Burial Ground, believed to be the largest communal burial site of enslaved people in the Western Hemisphere. The remains were identified using LIDAR, a laser-mapping technology.

Designed by British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye, the memorial draws on traditional African tombs, prayer sites and pyramids. Visitors enter through a dome of red earth housing exhibits on the slave trade, then climb a sugarcane-lined ramp to a mound holding 570 teak poles from Ghana, one for each person buried there. Each pole is topped with a brass plate angled toward the sun.

Adjaye’s firm says the design seeks to balance “the ancestors and the living, this world and the next.”

The memorial is the first phase of the Barbados Heritage District, announced in 2021 after the island removed the British monarch as head of state. The district is also planned to include a national museum, archives and a genealogical research institute.

Liberia’s ties to Barbados date to 1865, when Barbadian families sailed aboard the brig Cora and settled in Crozierville, outside Monrovia, at the invitation of the Liberian government. Their descendants became prominent in Liberian law, politics and media.

Witherspoon said research into his own Caribbean ancestry, which he began in 2019, led to a meeting with Mottley at her official residence, Ilaro Court, in 2020. She tasked him with organizing the 2024 Sankofa Pilgrimage, which brought more than 500 descendants of the Barbadian emigrants back to the island.

He also helped facilitate diplomatic relations between the two countries and a 2025 state visit to Liberia by Barbados President Sandra Mason.

The two countries signed visa waiver and political consultation agreements in March.

“Thanks to the visionary leadership of President Boakai, a 160-year hiatus in the relationship between Barbados and Liberia has been broken,” Witherspoon said.