Brewerville – Amid growing concerns over tensions along Liberia’s northern border, major drug seizures and heightened political divisions, Liberians have been urged to set aside pride, seek peace and work collectively to protect the country’s security and stability.

The call was made by Bishop Kortu K. Brown during a one day “Prayer for Thanksgiving and Restoration for the Family” held Wednesday, August 26, 2026, to climax the 28th Church Anniversary of the New Water in the Desert Assembly Apostolic Pentecostal Church International in Brewerville.

During the prayer service, a prophetic message delivered to the congregation warned repeatedly that “Liberia is on a time bomb.”

The message urged Liberians to listen and “search the country” for issues that could threaten national peace and security.

Speaking later during the service, Bishop Brown recalled what he described as a similar prophecy received by the local church in early 1999, warning of a war coming from the northern part of Liberia that would spread across the country.

According to Bishop Brown, the instruction accompanying that prophecy was for the church to reach out to the government and encourage a refocusing of national efforts, while mobilizing Liberian women to pray for the country.

He recalled that the women were subsequently mobilized to pray at the Centennial Pavilion in Monrovia under the coordination of the late Sister Ruth Caesar and Mother Mariama Brown.

Bishop Brown said the three-day intercessory prayer by Liberian women helped lay the groundwork for the “Liberia for Jesus” Prayer Crusade, which was held approximately three years later in February 2002.

Reflecting on the current national situation, the bishop called on the government to listen to the concerns of citizens, reconsider its course where necessary and engage broadly with Liberians in an effort to avert potential danger.

He also encouraged the church to remain committed to prayer and to what he described as its sacrificial responsibility to help deliver the country from impending challenges.

“There are people with their own mindset” in the country, he cautioned, emphasizing the need for continued prayer and vigilance.

Bishop Brown further called for a reduction in what he described as unnecessary political tensions, urging Liberians to examine developments across the country that could undermine peace and national security.

“There’s a need to reduce unnecessary political tension in the country and also ‘search’ this country for anything that could undermine peace and security,” he said.

The church leader urged national leaders to listen to citizens and take steps to prevent Liberia from moving toward confrontation.

“Our leaders must listen to avoid setting up the country on a collision path,” he warned.

The remarks come amid a period of heightened national debate over security, illicit drug trafficking, political tensions and developments along Liberia’s northern border.

While the prophecy and its spiritual interpretation remain matters of faith, Bishop Brown’s broader appeal centered on peace, vigilance, national unity and responsible leadership.

He urged Liberians not to allow political differences, pride or competing interests to undermine the country’s hard-won peace.

The prayer service concluded with Bishop Brown leading worshippers on their knees in a collective prayer for mercy and divine intervention for Liberia.

The gathering reflected the church’s continuing call for prayer, reconciliation and collective responsibility at a time when concerns about Liberia’s peace and stability remain prominent in national discourse.

Six months ago, Justin Oldpa Yeazeahn built his name calling the country’s judges corrupt without proof. Now, with his sentence almost served, he has put his signature to two paragraphs asking the same judges — and the women he insulted along the way — for forgiveness.

By Rodney D. Sieh, rodney.sieh@frontpageafricaonline.com

Monrovia – The letter itself is short, plain, and stripped of the theatrics that made ProphetKey’s name in the first place. There is no pulpit voice in it, no crowd to play to — just a man addressing, by title and by name, the people he spent months attacking from behind a microphone. “I, Justin Oldpa Yeazeah, A.K.A. Prophetkey, take this time to apologize to the Honorable Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay, Sr., the Associate Justices, His Honor Yussif D. Kaba, His Honor Boakai M. Kannel, and Especially my mother’s Associate Justices Jamesetta Wolokolie and Ceaineh D. Clinton Johnson, respectively, Judges, magistrates and the Judiciary as a whole for saying that they are very corrupt without any proof,” it reads.

It does not stop there. “I also take this time to apologize to all the Liberian women that I ever insulted and those who listened to my insults,” the letter continues — a second apology, broader and less specific than the first, aimed not at five justices by name but at an entire category of people he cannot individually name or count. Under the terms of his sentence, this letter is due to run in three Liberian newspapers for five consecutive days, a public act of contrition performed in print rather than delivered once and forgotten. It is, by design, difficult to walk back.

How He Got Here

The path to that letter began on February 13, 2026, when the Supreme Court’s Full Bench — Chief Justice Gbeisay sitting with Associate Justices Jamesetta Howard Wolokolie, Yussif D. Kaba, Ceaineh D. Clinton Johnson and Boakai N. Kanneh — found Prophet Key guilty of criminal contempt. The conduct behind the finding was not a single stray comment. Prosecutors and the Court pointed to a pattern of vulgar, personal attacks on the judiciary, including remarks about the Chief Justice’s mother, layered on top of unproven claims that the justices were, in his words, corrupt. The Court grounded its ruling in Articles 5, 14 and 15 of the 1986 Constitution — the provisions guarding free expression, but also the ones that make clear expression is not a license without limits, particularly when aimed at undermining the judiciary’s institutional standing without evidence to back it up.

Prophet Key did not fight the underlying facts. He pleaded guilty and appealed to the Court to temper justice with mercy. The justices were not moved to leniency on the length of the sentence — six months, the maximum contemplated for the offense — but they built two off-ramps into the judgment itself: publish an apology in three newspapers for five straight days and sign a bond pledging not to repeat the conduct. Both conditions point toward the same goal, that his release be conditioned not just on time served but on a public, on-the-record retraction. As of early August, with the six-month clock nearing its end, that retraction has arrived in the form of the letter above.

A Firebrand Who Aimed Everywhere

Before the sentence, Prophet Key had built a following as one of the loudest, least filtered voices criticizing the Boakai government and its institutions on social media and online broadcasts — a preacher-turned-commentator whose style leaned on shock and personal insult as much as argument. That style is precisely what put him in front of the Full Bench in the first place: it was not the substance of his corruption claims against the judiciary that the Court punished, but his failure to back them with proof, combined with language the justices found impossible to separate from personal insult, including toward a justice’s own mother.

It is a familiar tension in Liberia’s public life, one that resurfaces every time a combative online critic runs into an institution with the power to jail him for what he said rather than answer what he alleged. Supporters cast Prophet Key as a martyr for saying aloud what many Liberians mutter privately about their courts. The justices who sentenced him drew a narrower, sharper line: that accusing named individuals of corruption without proof, laced with insults about their families, is not commentary Liberia’s contempt laws are built to protect, however popular the commentator.

Equal Justice, Selectively Applied?

Not everyone treated the sentence as simple and closed. Senator Amara Konneh of Grand Bassa County, already a prominent voice in Liberia’s wider reckoning over accountability this year, used the ruling to ask a harder question of the judiciary itself: would the Court move with the same speed and severity if the insults had been aimed at an ordinary citizen, or at a member of the Legislature or the Executive, instead of at the bench that was doing the sentencing? Justice applied only to protect the judges who apply it, Konneh argued, is not equal justice — it is self-defense wearing a robe.

Konneh did not stop at process. He pushed the Court to treat the corruption allegations Prophet Key had raised as a separate matter deserving its own answer, rather than letting the contempt conviction close the book on the underlying claims. Punishing the manner of the accusation, in his framing, cannot substitute for addressing whether there was anything to the accusation at all. It is a distinction the Court’s judgment does not resolve Prophet Key was found guilty of speaking without proof, but the ruling does not itself certify that the judiciary is free of the conduct he described, only that he failed to establish it in the way the law requires.

What Comes Next

Barring any complication, Prophet Key’s 180 days run out in mid-August — a matter of days from now — closing out a sentence that began the same week he was still, by most accounts, one of the more combative critics operating in Liberia’s online space. What he does with his platform afterward is the open question hanging over his release. The bond he signed commits him to a change in conduct; the letter now circulating commits him, in writing and soon in print, to specific apologies to five named justices and to Liberian women broadly. Whether that commitment holds once the cameras move on, or whether Monrovia’s most talked-about firebrand simply picks the microphone back up where he left it, is something only the coming weeks will show.

For now, what’s certain is narrower and more concrete: a letter has been written, a sentence is nearly served, and a debate the case reopened — about who gets to be protected from insult in Liberia, and how fast — is still unresolved.

Summary:

• A 57-year-old grandmother in Todee District says she was raped in January. Seven months later, her case has not been heard, no government official has visited her, and the family of the accused has approached her with money and gifts, asking her to drop the case.
• The head of the SGBV unit at the Ministry of Justice concedes a lack of funds has meant his office has secured just two convictions in six years.
• The vice president of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia calls the failure to deliver justice for victims “a national emergency.”

By Tetee Gebro, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives

TODEE DISTRICT, Montserrado County — The first time they came, they brought L$18,000  (US$100). The second time the family brought a lapa, a traditional cloth.

When the family, whose 24-year-old son had been accused by multiple witnesses of raping the 57-year-old grandmother in broad daylight in front of her small grandson,  arrived with the cloth, the woman says she understood exactly what it meant.

“The boy ma bring the lapa; That the cloth her son take from on me,” she said in Liberian English. “That the cloth she come put back on me.”

She understood what the money was for too. “They are begging so I can agree so they can free their son.”

Most victims in Liberia eventually accept the money. Though the grandmother says she badly wants justice, she is beginning to think she has no choice but to do the same.

The woman’s quest for justice, documented by FrontPage Africa/New Narratives since January when she and witnesses say the crime took place, has shown the extraordinary obstacles that any victim of sexual and gender-based violence in Liberia must overcome, particularly those from rural areas. She and her community have had to raise hundreds of dollars – including to transport and detain the accused. The case was delayed when the case files, in the paper-based system, were lost. Finally the case has stalled because neither the woman nor the court have the funds to bring her to the courtroom in Monrovia.

The case has been a window into the dysfunctional justice system which has seen just two convictions in six years, says Isaac George, head of the Sexual and Gender Based Violence unit at the Ministry of Justice.

George said his unit has about 300 reported cases on his books right now. The unit has no functional forensic DNA laboratory to test semen samples and no vehicle for field visits. The only evidence they have in most rape cases rests largely on physical examinations at One Stop rape centers, which defense lawyers routinely challenge in court as opinion rather than scientific proof.

After the grandmother’s case made national news, George spoke to her by phone and told her she would have to find someone to bring her to Monrovia.  

“We do not have the means of going to Todee,” George said. “We do not have the means of shuttling from here to Todee and back. No. I blame the system. It is a systemic problem within our justice sector.”

And now, with two terms of court gone, the accused rapist, a 24-year-old identified in court records as Mohammed Bah, is eligible for bail because his case has not been heard in a timely manner. Like an 8-year-old victim whose case New Narratives exposed in February, the grandmother may soon have to live with the alleged perpetrator back in her community.

“If she doesn’t show up after two terms of court, we have no choice but to release him,” George said. “That is it.”

“Women are no longer safe,” said Bowoulo Taylor Kelly, vice president of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia. She said the pattern in this case has become routine. And defense lawyers are now learning to game the system.

“It is a new form — the defense moving in and saying failure to proceed — and then you see rape suspects walking freely and going back and committing more rape,” Taylor Kelly said. “And then we still have this perpetual cycle of SGBV going on because people see that they are not being dealt with within the full extent of the law.”

“This should not be happening in a civilized society. It has become a national emergency,” says Bowoulo Taylor Kelly, vice president of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia.

$22 Million EU-Funded Spotlight Project Fails to Deliver Justice

Many experts hoped things would have been better by now. The European Union’s Spotlight Initiative arrived in Liberia in 2017 as part of a 5-year $22 million partnership with the United Nations, promising to help women and girls live free from violence. (It was part of a bigger project in 8 countries in Africa). It could point to real breakthroughs: traditional leaders signed an unprecedented statement in 2019 banning female genital mutilation and closing the “bush schools” where the practice is carried out, and the country built new systems to track gender-based violence cases. But a 2023 audit by the European Court of Auditors found that the promise on paper rarely reached the women it was meant to protect. Because no law actually criminalized FGM, victims still struggled to access justice, and auditors who visited the country were told the practice continued in the very counties that had signed up to the ban. The Domestic Violence Act, approved in 2019, remained hobbled by practical and cultural obstacles — and the initiative had no way of monitoring whether any of these laws were being enforced at all.

For rural women, the gap between commitment and protection is starkest in the justice system itself. The audit found that reported cases of violence against women in Liberia fell, rather than rose, over the life of the program — from a baseline of 2,105 down to 920 — a drop that auditors said signaled the difficulty of reaching and being believed by an under-resourced system, where police and court records are often too incomplete to even classify a complaint as gender-based violence.

Attitudes appeared to harden: Liberia was one of only two African countries where the share of people who believed a man was justified in beating his wife worsened over the period measured. And with the four-year program judged far too short to shift entrenched social norms — surveyed EU officials estimated real change takes around sixteen years — much of the work risked unravelling once the money was gone, since most of the activities auditors examined in Liberia were found unlikely to be sustainable.

New Narratives’ reporting shows that the auditors warnings have come true.

A new $13 million “Spotlight 2.0.” kicked off in 2025 and runs until 2029. A Gender-Based Violence Information Management System is planned that is supposed to strengthen how cases are recorded and shared across the system. The system is meant to function as a secure national database: when a survivor reports abuse at a clinic, police station, one-stop center, or safe home, trained staff enter basic case details and the services provided, helping the government see where cases cluster, where services are missing, and whether survivors are being followed up. It is intended to improve coordination, services, and data systems with the Ministry of Gender in a central role.

Activists say the case should be a wakeup call to the government to accelerate that work. Taylor Kelly says said the SGBV unit must receive the vehicles, equipment, and budget to reach survivors where they are. She said community-level legal aid and referral systems must exist so a woman in Todee does not have to navigate a city she has never visited to access justice.

“The state cannot take a responsibility and just put it on one group of people. You will have to lead,” she said.

“Let us go to court“

After three visits from the family, the grandmother is still holding out. She knows what the money and gifts buy: her silence, his freedom, the end of a case that has already cost her more than anyone has acknowledged.

She knows her photograph went on social media after the rape. She knows what her community saw. She knows what they said about her. When the family came with their apologies and their cloth and their money, she felt all of it at once — the violation, the public humiliation, and now the quiet pressure to make it disappear.

“All that I passed through,” she said. “My picture go all on Facebook. You supposed to know that your son bring big disgrace on me. All that one — his family coming to beg.”

She still holds a belief, after months of silence from the state, that what happened to her should be said out loud in a room where people have to listen.

“Let us go to court,” she says. “Let us talk the thing that happened to me so people can understand.”

This story was produced in collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by a private donor and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The donors had no say in the story’s content.

Monrovia – The Liberia National Police (LNP) have arrested STAND Chairman Mulbah Morlu and placed him under investigation following a standoff over a firearm displayed during Friday’s anti-drug protest in Monrovia.

Police had earlier declared Morlu wanted for allegedly possessing a firearm and reportedly surrounded his residence early Saturday morning in an effort to apprehend him. Following his arrest, Morlu briefly appeared before the Paynesville Magisterial Court before being taken to LNP headquarters for questioning.

Authorities have not yet disclosed whether formal charges have been filed against him.

The development comes just hours after Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman, through a statement issued by the LNP on Friday, declared Morlu “armed and dangerous” and ordered him to immediately surrender a firearm that authorities claim was taken from a police officer during the July 17 protest.

Morlu, who chairs the Solidarity and Trust for a New Day (STAND), was the lead organizer of the demonstration, which called on the government to intensify efforts against drug trafficking and abuse and to fully investigate the recent US$19 million cocaine seizure.

During the protest, Morlu publicly displayed a firearm, claiming it had been recovered from an alleged intruder. The incident triggered an immediate response from law enforcement authorities.

In its statement, the LNP said it had received “credible intelligence” indicating that the weapon seized during the protest was intended for unlawful purposes. Police further alleged that Morlu was in unlawful possession of the firearm and cautioned both law enforcement officers and members of the public.

“The Liberia National Police hereby declares Mr. Mulbah Morlu armed and dangerous and urges the public to exercise extreme caution,” the statement said.

The LNP instructed officers not to engage Morlu alone and directed that any action involving him be coordinated through established command structures. The police also issued what they described as a “final warning,” demanding that Morlu immediately turn over the firearm to the nearest police station or other recognized law enforcement authority.

“Failure to do so will result in every lawful measure being taken to recover the weapon and bring all responsible persons before the courts,” the statement added.

The arrest marks the latest development in the aftermath of Friday’s protest and sets the stage for a potentially contentious legal battle over the circumstances surrounding the firearm and Morlu’s actions during the demonstration.

Liberia’s Largest Trafficking Trial Ends in Convictions for All Defendants

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives

A jury convicted all eight defendants on all charges Monday in Liberia’s largest human trafficking trial, delivering a unanimous verdict after roughly 20 minutes of deliberation and closing out a case that has tested the country’s justice system under intense international scrutiny.

The defendants were found guilty of trafficking in persons, criminal conspiracy and theft of property; those facing rape charges were convicted on those counts as well. The speed of the jury’s decision came after nearly three weeks of testimony from dozens of the case’s 57 alleged victims, who described being lured with false promises of jobs in Canada, then held for months at a compound in Gbankpa Town, Margibi County, where they say they were beaten, raped, starved and coerced into extorting money from their own families.

The verdict is the first conviction in a case that nearly collapsed before it reached trial. A March investigation by FrontPage Africa/New Narratives revealed that nine victims had accused public defender Bestman Juah of offering a US$7,000 bribe to reduce charges, and accused police investigator Enoch Dunbar of accepting payment to alter victim statements and drop charges — allegations both men have denied. Liberia’s solicitor general, Augustine C. Fayiah, later ordered a separate investigative panel to examine those claims.

The case had also been shadowed by Liberia’s broader record on trafficking prosecutions: the government lost three trafficking cases between 2023 and 2024, and just six of 22 cases that reached Liberian courts since 2020 had ended in conviction before Monday’s verdict. Liberia has spent two consecutive years on the US State Department’s Tier 2 watch list for trafficking enforcement, with a third year risking a cut in American aid.

Four defendants had already pleaded guilty before the verdict. Shelley Jonny struck a deal with prosecutors on June 10, testifying against her co-defendants in exchange for having her charges dropped. Three more — Maxson Wonlebaye, Martherline Tompia and Preston Godfred — pleaded guilty a day later but were denied the same deal, with prosecutors saying their admissions would count only as a mitigating factor at sentencing.

Prosecutors built their case on testimony from victims who identified specific defendants by name, corroborated by rebuttal witnesses in the trial’s final days who directly contradicted defendants’ denials — including testimony that defendant Jerome Genseh took as much as US$18,000 from one accuser under false promises of travel, and Dunbar’s sworn denial that police had taken defendants’ property.

For a justice system that has struggled for years to secure trafficking convictions, and for a government facing pressure from Washington over its record on the crime, Monday’s unanimous verdict stands as a marker of whether the system can hold traffickers accountable even when bribery allegations threaten a case from the inside. Advocates who had criticized the government’s initial handling of the case are likely to point to the conviction as evidence that sustained scrutiny — from journalists, from victims willing to testify, and from prosecutors who ultimately restored dropped charges — can still produce a result.

Sentencing has not yet been scheduled, and neither prosecutors, defense lawyers nor victims have issued public statements since the verdict. **This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives

A stunning turn in Liberia’s largest human trafficking trial unfolded Wednesday as one of the 12 defendants pleaded guilty and took the stand against her co-defendants.

Moments before proceedings resumed in the morning, Shelley Jonny, dressed in a blue prison uniform, moved from the dock to address the court. Her calm demeanor contrasted sharply with the expressions of the other defendants, who appeared stunned by her decision to abandon her earlier plea of “not guilty” at the trial’s opening on Tuesday.

When asked by Judge Roosevelt Willie of Criminal Court “A” whether the charges against her were true, Jonny responded:

“Some there that true. Some there is not true,” said Jonny speaking in Liberian English. “The one I see, that’s what I will talk.”

Willie then directed questions to Sennay Carlor, a public defender, about whether Jonny, one of three women among the defendants, had previously discussed her change of position with him. Carlor told the court that she had not but said he had no objection to her decision to plead guilty and testify against the other accused.

Willie ordered a 10-minute recess to allow the prosecution to meet with the witness. The parties returned with prosecutors announcing the state had dropped charges against her. Jonny was facing charges of trafficking in persons, theft of property and criminal conspiracy and was facing a minimum 20-year prison sentence.

On the witness stand, Jonny became a powerful witness for the prosecution. Experts said the defense was already facing a difficult battle with overwhelming evidence from 57 victims in the case, but Jonny’s flip against her co-conspirators may prove decisive in the jurors’ minds.

Jonny told the court she was originally a victim, recruited from Nimba County by Jonny Dahn, another accused whom the state says remains at large. Jonny said she gave Shelley Suah, another defendant, US$3000 on Dahn’s instructions with the hopes of traveling to Canada.

In a story that mirrored that of other victims, she told the court that after arriving in Monrovia, she was taken to the compound in Gbankpa Town, near the residence of Vice President Jeremiah Koung along the Roberts International Airport highway, that became the alleged holding location for all the women victims in this case. Vicitms have alleged there were as many as 150 women held at one time. Another compound held men. There she realized that she was not going to get the money or travel to Canada.

Jonny testified, that Dahn and other accused – Shelley Suah, Stanley Wonlebaye, Luther Flomo, Maxson Wonlebaye and others – directed her to bring more recruits, promising payment of $225 per week. Over time that encouragement turned to coercion through torture.

Jonny corroborated the testimony of the prosecutions’ first witness, whom FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is calling S., to protect her from retribution. On Tuesday, S. described what she said was inhumane treatment during captivity—including deprivation of food, torture and beatings—while detained at the compound. Jonny said there were about 150 people held there in total.

“Martherline [Tompia, another accused] gave me sea water to drink,” Jonny said. She said that captors used water—she said large quantities—then restricted food afterward, contributing to sickness and vomiting. “Luther used to make me to pump tire. Preston used to beat on my head. Stanley used to make be to sit down in dirty water and tell me to stretch my two hands. No food. They put you on your knees, you pump tire, they give you 15 bags of water to drink.”

She testified that sexual violence was part of the conditions in the compound, characterizing rape as a widespread practice among the captors’ tactics.

“They used to do it to other people but not me,” Johhny said during cross examination. She said that rape was the “trend,” describing a pattern in which captors allegedly used rape to pressure victims to hand over money.

Jonny said she did not immediately join other detainees who escaped the compound and went to the Paynesville courthouse to report the crimes. The women had fled the compound with the help of security personnel at Vice President Koung’s nearby compound after their captors told them that Ophelia Melway, one of their number, had died. The women said they began loud banging and screaming that got the attention of the guards. The alleged victims told New Narratives and investigators that they believed Melway had been murdered and that they, having exhausted all value to the traffickers, would also be killed. She told the court she had wanted to make clear to police that she had originally been a victim too but felt forced to become a perpetrator.

Jonny testified that she had warned the accused she was willing to testify against them.

“I told Wuo Zekarso Garteh and Jerome Genseh that ‘I am not part of you. You used to be suffering us,” said Jonny. “ The one I see, that’s it, I will talk.” She said the accused and Prince Konway, a lawyer for the accused at the start of the case in the Paynesville Magestrates’ Court, had—discouraged her from breaking away from the group saying that the case would soon be dismissed.

Jonny’s decision to cooperate with the prosecutors was hailed as a significant step toward accountability by Augustine C. Fayiah, Liberia’s solicitor general, who had taken the unusual step of appearing in court to lead the prosecution. Experts said it was a sign that the government was serious about ensuring justice was done and, importantly, seen to be done, in this case that had gained that attention of key national and international actors.

“That will tell you that their conduct is criminal,” said Fayiah. “I think that is very, very good that she testified against accused colleagues.”

In an interview, Fayiah said the government had taken seriously revelations in earlier reporting by FrontPage Africa and New Narratives that victims had alleged that traffickers told them they were paying a public defender named Bestman Juah to ensure the charges were reduced or dropped.

In the original charge sheet issued by Enoch Dunbar, the chief police human trafficking inspector, just one of the 12 defendants, and another 15 alleged offenders who have not been arrested, was charged with the most serious crime, Trafficking in Persons. Three were not charged at all. Dunbar and Juah have denied the allegations.

All jurors were sequestered (held separately during the trial to protect them from influence, bribery and intimidation) in another unusual move, designed to underscore the government’s seriousness in the case. Fayiah said security had also been increased with four armed police officers were deployed to the protected area of the Temple of Justice, the seat of Liberia’s judiciary, on Wednesday morning, with additional officers planned for Thursday.

After Jonny’s testimony, the state presented two additional female witnesses, each describing rape and coercion by the alleged captors. One witness—identified in court with the initial “P.”—testified that she was recruited from Grand Gedeh County by defendant Bill Plato with a promise of travel to Canada, describing paying $3000 for processing her passport and traveling documents. She then described abuse similar to that of Jonny. She said she was taken to the compound and kept with others under inhumane conditions, tortured and forced to call family and friends listed in her phone to lie to them that she was in Canada and persuade them to pay money too. She said she was raped by Plato.

A second witness, identified as “L.”, testified that she was raped by Maxson Wonlebaye and said she was compelled to abort a resulting pregnancy with pills.

“The next day, he brought the medicine,” said L. She first refused to take the medicine but then he forced her. She said the resulting blood loss, with no medical attention, made her fear she would die. She also said captors punished her when she would not request money from her relatives, describing forced labor in which she was tortured and forced to pump air into tires for two hours at a time.

Both witnesses described harsh treatment, and their accounts, along with Jonny’s, offered a consistent theme: coercion, confinement, and sexual violence used as mechanisms to control them and extract money.

The trial continues Thursday.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent and New Narratives editors

Summary:

• A grand jury in Monrovia has indicted 11 people accused of trafficking and stealing from 57 victims in Liberia’s largest human trafficking case to date.
• The indictment followed a FrontPage Africa/New Narratives investigation that exposed allegations that bribery had led police investigators to drop or reduce charges.
• The case brought international scrutiny on the government over its failure to combat human trafficking scams as more and more Liberians are caught up in them.

A grand jury in Monrovia has indicted 11 people accused of operating a sprawling human trafficking ring that prosecutors say lured dozens of Liberians with promises of jobs abroad before holding them captive, extorting money from their families and subjecting some victims to rape and torture.

The indictment comes two months after a FrontPage Africa/New Narratives investigation exposed victims’ allegations that lawyers and police investigators had taken bribe payments to undermine the case. Delays in prosecuting the case looked likely to give the perpetrators the right to apply for bail after which they were expected to vanish as accused trafficker Cephus Selebay did in a similar case in 2022. The case is the largest human trafficking prosecution in Liberia’s history.

The investigation shone a rare spotlight on the corruption that plagues Liberia’s justice system and undermines confidence in the rule of law. It gave credence to victims claims that justice is only available to those who can pay.

It also came as researchers at the U.S. State Department are finalizing their annual Trafficking in Persons Report. Liberia has spent the last two consecutive years on the Tier-2 watchlist. A third year could mean a cut in U.S. funding.

Leading human rights advocate Tiawan Gongloe condemned the government’s failures in the case.

After the investigation was published Oswald Tweh, the justice minister, and the spokeswoman for President Joseph Boakai did not respond to requests for comment. But victims said prosecutors had retaken statements under the supervision of Sumo C. Kutu Akoi, the lead anti-human trafficking prosecutor.

According to court documents, the victims — 22 women and 35 men recruited from seven of Liberia’s 15 counties — were promised jobs in Canada or Australia. Instead, prosecutors say, they were taken to a fenced compound in Gbankpa Town, near the residence of Vice President Jeremiah Koung along the Roberts International Airport highway, where they were allegedly detained for up to a year, beaten, starved, sexually assaulted, forced to call relatives to send money and in many cases, coerced to recruit their relatives and loved ones.

Most were financially devastated by the crimes. One woman from Nimba County told FrontPage Africa/New Narratives she had sold her farm and everything she owned to raise $US16,500 to give to traffickers. Another had been forced to lure her brother with false promises that she was happily in Canada. Now their mother was on death’s door hounded day and night by debt collectors seeking repayment for money loaned to send them abroad.

In their unanimous decision, the grand jurors concluded that it was “more probable than not” that the defendants had “committed the crime of trafficking in persons, a felony of the first degree.” The indictment alleged that the accused “willfully, knowingly, intentionally and purposely agreed, conspired and extorted a total of $US124,921” from the victims between 2024 and 2025.

“The victims were coerced by the defendants to call their relatives to pay additional money to the defendants,” the indictment said, describing the acts as “slavery-like practice/labor exploitation.”

The indictment also seeks nearly $US200,000 in restitution under Liberia’s revised anti-trafficking law, including compensation for ongoing medical and psychological treatment, rehabilitation expenses already incurred by victims and their families, and emotional distress and suffering that prosecutors said continued long after the victims escaped the compound.

All 11 defendants — Bill Plato, Wuo Zekarso Garteh, Preston Godfred, Maxson Wonlebaye, Jerome Genseh, Luther Flomo, Alexander Plato, Madthianline Tompia, Shalley Jonny, Blessing Favior Suah and Stanley Wonlebaye — were indicted on charges including trafficking in persons, theft of property and criminal conspiracy. Three – Plato, Garteh and Wonlebaye -were indicted on rape charges. An additional 11 suspects remain at large, according to the indictment.

FrontPage Africa/New Narratives reported that police initially charged only five of the 11 defendants with Trafficking in Persons – the most serious of the charges which carries a minimum 20-year sentence and does not allow bail. Just one defendant – Bill Plato – was charged with rape.

Three defendants —Marthaline Tompia, Shelley Jonny and Blessing Favor Suah — who had been accused of torture, trafficking and theft by multiple victims – did not appear on the original charge sheet at all.

Victims said they believed they knew why charges had been dropped or reduced: Nine victims told police investigators and FrontPage Africa/New Narratives that their alleged captors had been openly contemptuous of the justice system. Police were “in the business,” they were told. Their captors “owned the government.” They said the alleged traffickers told them a public defender named Bestman Juah was taking $500 a week to keep them free. They said a prosecutor had told them that Juah had offered him a $7000 bribe to reduce the charges.

When he refused the bribe, victims suspected police had taken it. Enoch Dunbar, who leads the Liberia National Police Trafficking in Persons desk, and Emmanuel S. Walker, an investigator, took the victims’ statements but reduced and dropped the charges from the original charge sheet.

One of nine victims’ statements to police that name Bestman Juah as the lawyer for the traffickers. (The victim’s name is redacted for their security.)

In WhatsApp messages to New Narratives in March Juah, Dunbar and Walker strongly denied they had taken any payments.

In the grand jury indictment Trafficking in Persons, Theft of Property and Criminal Conspiracy charges were restored against all defendants. Garteh and Wonlebaye had rape charges restored.

For the victims, the indictment represented a rare sign of hope in a case they feared had stalled indefinitely.

“Right now, I am feeling a little better,” said L., a rape victim in the case whom FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is identifying by her initial to protect her from retaliation. “Since we started the case, we’ve been going to court again and again, and we weren’t hearing anything good. But at least this past Wednesday, we were able to reach the grand jury. I feel a little better because the case has taken long.”

Another victim said the indictment had changed his perspective about Liberia’s justice system, “especially for the poor,” though “from our point of view, we thought the case should have started long ago.”

“I am excited,” said a prosecutor involved in the original case, whom FrontPage Africa/New Narratives is identifying only by their middle initial, T because of a fear of retaliation. “Justice is not always conviction. But the voice of the victim must be heard before a court, and the court must make a fair determination.”

A new court term began on May 11. T. said investigators had gathered extensive corroborating testimony and evidence.

“That story is corroborated by everyone we spoke to,” the prosecutor said. “I think we have a case we can prove, and these guys will be held accountable for their actions.”

Victims said they are ready for the case.

“We are willing 100 percent to testify,” Z. said. “That’s what we’ve been pushing for.”

Liberia has struggled for years to secure convictions in trafficking cases. Between 2023 and 2024, the government lost three trafficking prosecutions. Since 2020, only 22 trafficking cases have reached Liberian courts, and just six have ended in conviction. (Uganda, by contrast, recorded 130 convictions in 2023 and 109 in 2024.)

The scale of the problem dwarfs that record. With climate change and economic turmoil driving more and more young people from subsistence farming, the number of people vulnerable to these scams is growing. Paynesville prosecutors alone say they have received reports involving hundreds of victims in recent years. In January, Nigerian police and military raided two compounds in Lagos, where victims said there were hundreds of Liberians being held.

Compounds have been discovered in Freetown and others in Monrovia. There are almost certainly victims in captivity now.

Anti-trafficking advocates said they hoped the latest indictments would demonstrate stronger enforcement efforts as Liberia faces growing international scrutiny over failures to combat human trafficking.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency. The funder had no say in the story’s content.

MONROVIA – Renowned Liberian clergyman Bishop Kortu Brown has welcomed the recent ruling of the Supreme Court of Liberia against political commentator Justin Opa Yeazehn, widely known as Prophet Key. He described the decision as a ‘necessary step’ to safeguard the country’s future and protect younger generations from the growing culture of vulgarity in public discourse.

The full bench of the Supreme Court last week sentenced Prophet Key to six months in prison after summoning him on contempt charges for publicly ridiculing the Court.

The charges stemmed from a series of social media statements in which he verbally attacked Chief Justice Yarmin Quiqui Gbeisay and his mother, and accused the Supreme Court of corruption. In its judgment, the Court found his actions contemptuous and damaging to the integrity of the judiciary, warranting a custodial sentence.

The ruling was handed down a day after Prophet Key appeared before the full bench of the Supreme Court, pleaded guilty to the charges, and asked the justices to temper justice with mercy.

Despite his plea, the Court maintained that its authority and credibility must be protected from what it described as reckless and scandalous attacks.

Speaking at the opening of his church’s 17th Biennial Conference held in Brewerville, outside Monrovia, on Tuesday, February 17, Bishop Brown said the Supreme Court’s decision was intended not only to discipline Prophet Key, but also to serve as a warning against the increasing use of invectives on radio talk shows and social media platforms across the country.

According to Bishop Brown, the ruling is designed to safeguard Liberia’s young and future generations from adopting vulgar language as a means of addressing national issues or resolving disagreements. He stressed that while freedom of speech is a constitutional right, it must not be abused through insults and personal attacks.

He noted that the use of profane language by political commentators and other public figures is becoming commonplace in Liberia, a trend he described as troubling and dangerous. Bishop Brown emphasized that the propagation of unruly behavior in the name of politics represents a serious abuse of freedom of expression and has no place in a civilized society.

“It is painful,” he said, “for citizens to direct insults even at the dead parents of their perceived political opponents and critics simply because of misunderstanding or disagreement.”

He maintained that Liberians can disagree and debate issues of national concern without resorting to profanity or degrading language.

Bishop Brown openly thanked the Supreme Court for what he described as giving Prophet Key a second chance to reflect on his conduct. He expressed hope that the prison sentence would serve as a corrective measure and a turning point in the commentator’s life.

“What kind of freedom of speech is cussing ma cuss?” Bishop Brown asked. “Is that what we want to teach our children in school, that they should cuss ma cuss? Such behavior has to change. Supreme Court, thank you. At least you gave our brother the second chance so he can go and rethink. Let God have mercy on Prophet Key.”

The clergyman urged Liberians to show mercy and forgiveness toward Prophet Key, noting that everyone is capable of change. He said he hoped that upon his release from prison, Prophet Key would return as a transformed individual and use his influence positively to guide young people.

“We pray that when he comes from prison, he will be a changed man,” Bishop Brown said. “The influence he has can help direct many young people, and we want him to use that influence very positively. Let God forgive him, but when he comes outside he must stop cussing people ma and pa.”

While encouraging forgiveness, Bishop Brown also cautioned radio talk show hosts and social media commentators against using their platforms to denigrate womanhood or rain insults on those who disagree with them. He stressed that Liberia faces numerous pressing challenges that require serious and constructive discussion rather than personal attacks.

“You can talk about all of the things happening in Liberia and you do not have to cuss,” he said. “Cussing somebody’s ma is not a good example for our children or for women. We have plenty of things to talk about in Liberia. Let us talk about them and stop cussing ma cuss.”

Bishop Brown reaffirmed that the church in Liberia will continue to stand for social justice, freedom of speech and expression, and the upholding of the rule of law and the Constitution.

However, he made it clear that the church does not and will not condone the use of profanities by citizens as a means of addressing national issues.

Monrovia – Following the Ministry of Justice’s order for the immediate cessation of activities linked to the National Fula Security of Liberia (NFSL), which it branded unauthorized and warned poses “serious national security concerns,” President Joseph Boakai’s Press Secretary, Kula Fofana, has mounted a rare public defense of the group, calling for its reform and regulation rather than an outright ban.

By Jaheim T. Tumu-jaheim.tumu@frontpageafricaonline.com

Ministry’s Crackdown

On Monday, February 16, the Ministry issued a statement citing “alarming reports, images, and public communications” circulating on social media about the group’s recruitment activities.  

The Ministry stressed that no authorization, permit, registration, or operational approval had been granted for NFSL. “Under the laws of Liberia, the establishment, organization, recruitment, or operation of any security body, paramilitary structure, auxiliary force, or organized enforcement entity requires prior authorization from the Government through the Ministry of Justice’s Division of Public Safety,” the statement declared.  

The Ministry confirmed that NFSL organizers had not undergone vetting, assessment, or security review. Accordingly, the Ministry ordered the immediate cessation of all recruitment, mobilization, promotional, and operational activities. The warning was blunt, any continuation would be deemed a violation of Liberian law and would “attract the full weight of criminal and administrative sanctions.”  

President Boakai’s Presidential Press Secretary Pushes Back

Despite this uncompromising stance, Fofana has come to the group’s defense. Her argument is rooted in pragmatism. “Calling for immediate disbandment without engagement risks alienating young people who are already contributing to orderliness. Guidance is better than rejection.”  

She urged authorities to treat the situation as a teaching moment rather than a confrontation. “Providing legal framework, oversight, training, and integration into community policing initiatives can transform uncertainty into cooperation,” she said.  

Ramadan and Public Safety

Her defense is not abstract. Ramadan, with its late-night prayers, crowded congregations, and heavy pedestrian movement, presents unique challenges for public safety. Police manpower is limited. Fofana argued: “Structured volunteer support under supervision enhances safety rather than undermines it.”  

Proceeding With Caution

She acknowledged the risks of perception and politics. “Community gatekeepers must resist pressure to condemn entirely simply to satisfy public outrage, while the group itself must accept reform, legality, and accountability. Wisdom lies in calibration rather than extremes.”  

Her final reflection was pointed: “The question should not merely be whether they should exist, but how they should exist lawfully.”  

What We Actually Know

The NFSL is not a new phenomenon. Community Fofana says it has existed for years, primarily operating during major Islamic gatherings such as Ramadan prayers and Eid celebrations.  

She explained that in 2018, when clerics Mufti Menk and Sheikh Mohammed Awal visited Liberia, turnout exceeded expectations. The group coordinated with the police to prevent chaos. Again, in November 2024, during another visit by Mufti Menk, a near-stampede was averted when the group restored order, allowing the program to proceed.  

Is There Evidence of Militarism?

Accordingly, there is no documented record of armed activity, rebel affiliation, or political violence linked to NFSL. Members are described as ordinary young people, students, traders, and workers who volunteer during religious events.  

A Useful Comparison

Fofana drew parallels with Christian gatherings, where ushers and marshals often manage crowds, parking, and altar access. “They may wear uniforms or reflective vests and coordinate movement, not as armed forces but as organized volunteers filling a gap where police presence is insufficient,” she explained.  

The Muslim community faces similar realities during Ramadan night prayers and Eid congregations. The difference lies less in function than in perception.  

The Real Issue: Structure and Perception

The controversy, Fofana suggested, lies less in what the group does and more in how it appears. Uniforms and coordination can create the perception of a paramilitary force.  

Her prescription is straightforward. “Proper registration under national law, clear operational guidelines, coordination with state security agencies, training in non-violent crowd management, and possibly a name that reflects community service rather than force would address many fears.”  

Preserving Peace Above All

Fofana was careful to stress limits. “I do not support any military or paramilitary organization whose purpose is to cause violence, intimidation, or destabilization in any form. The preservation of peace, national unity, and lawful order must remain paramount.”

Public Backlash

Fofana’s public defense of the controversial group has also received backlash on social media from government officials, civil society leaders, and ordinary citizens.  

Assistant Minister for Technical Services at the Ministry of Information, J. Rufus Paul, publicly challenged Fofana’s defense, insisting that the issue is not one of perception but of legitimacy.

“In Liberia, the authority to organize and operate security structures rests solely with the state through institutions such as the Ministry of Justice,” Paul said. He warned that when groups adopt names like “National Fulani Security,” wear uniforms, and operate in coordinated formations, they risk creating parallel security arrangements that threaten Liberia’s fragile peace.

Paul dismissed Fofana’s comparison to church ushers as “not equivalent,” noting that ushers are informal volunteers serving within congregations, not organized ethnic-based units.

Commentator Dominic Jayjay Musa accused Fofana of siding with “terrorist Fulani people,” claiming that her defense betrayed Liberia’s national security interests.   “It’s better for me to be called a xenophobic person today for defending my country and its people than for my entire generation to be wiped out,” Musa said, demanding Fofana’s resignation and questioning her loyalty to the government.

Cyrus Sneh Manneh, another commentator, cautioned against conflating the Fulani group with Liberia’s Muslim community.   “The nomenclature of the group didn’t say anything regarding the National Muslim Security of Liberia, but rather the Fulani National Security of Liberia, which is wrong,” Manneh said.

Manneh argued that allowing ethnic-based security organizations would set a dangerous precedent. “Should every ethnicity in Liberia establish its own national security organization outside the right authorities?” he asked. “We are not strangers to our ugly past as citizens of this country.”

 Alieu Swaray, a commentator familiar with mosque traditions, acknowledged the long-standing practice of volunteers assisting during prayers and Ramadan by arranging slippers, managing parking, and maintaining order.  “That has never been the issue,” Swaray said. “The concern arises when such a group is formalized, given a name like ‘National Fula Security of Liberia,’ and even wears military-style uniforms.”

Swaray argued that formalizing mosque volunteers under a national ethnic security banner was unnecessary and potentially destabilizing. “For years, volunteers have served faithfully without titles, without controversy, and without division,” he said.

He rejected attempts to frame the debate as an attack on Islam. “Islam is not under attack in Liberia, and this should not be framed as a tribal confrontation,” he said. “Security is the responsibility of the state, and the Liberia National Police has the constitutional obligation to provide security at masjids during Ramadan and at all times.”

Monrovia – The Ministry of Justice has issued a stern warning against the misuse of sirens on Liberian roads, clarifying that no office, rank, or position automatically entitles anyone to install or operate sirens.

By Jaheim T. Tumu – jaheim.tumu@frontpageafricaonline.com

In a statement signed by Director of Press and Public Affairs, Jutonu Kollie, the Ministry emphasized that “siren privileges are not attached to public office, rank, status, or position.”

“Ministers, legislators, judges, heads of agencies, political appointees, private security escorts, and private citizens are not authorized to install or use sirens unless their vehicles fall squarely within the categories provided by law,” the statement read.

The Ministry warned that it will strictly enforce Title 38, Chapter 6, Section 6.21 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law.

“Any person found installing, operating, or using a siren contrary to the law will face immediate enforcement action, including citation, seizure of unlawful equipment, fines, prosecution, and any other penalties provided by law,” Kollie said.

Law enforcement authorities nationwide have been directed to act “without exception”, ensuring that emergency privileges remain reserved for lawful and legitimate use.

The Ministry expressed “serious concern” over the growing misuse of sirens by unauthorized individuals. It noted that sirens are increasingly being used for “purposes unrelated to emergency response, including unlawful clearing of traffic and the assertion of improper road priority.”

Such conduct, the Ministry stressed, violates the Vehicle and Traffic Law and undermines public safety, traffic discipline, and the credibility of legitimate emergency services.

Under Liberian law, only police vehicles, fire service vehicles, and other duly designated emergency or official vehicles may be equipped with sirens. Their use is restricted to lawful emergencies, including responding to fire alarms, emergency calls, immediate pursuit of suspected offenders, and other legitimate emergency operations.

The Ministry clarified that vehicles expressly recognized under the Vehicle and Traffic Law, or those specifically authorized by the Ministry of Justice, may install and operate sirens.

“No individual, office, or institution may assume or exercise this privilege outside the statutory framework,” the statement said.

Reaffirming its commitment, the Ministry concluded: “The Ministry of Justice remains steadfast in upholding the rule of law and ensuring that emergency privileges are preserved strictly for lawful and legitimate use.”