IN LIBERIA, POWER doesn’t simply change hands — it recycles tactics.Once again, a nation long scarred by the abuse of state power finds itself standing at a historical crossroads, as the mechanisms of justice are seemingly turned into tools of suppression.
THE LATEST CHAPTER began late last week with the dramatic arrest and detention of five sitting lawmakers — among them, former House Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa — under allegations linked to the December 2024 fire that ravaged a wing of the Capitol Building.
WHILE THE SERIOUSNESS of the alleged crimes — arson, attempted murder, and criminal conspiracy — is not in question, the selective nature of enforcement and the aggressive tactics employed suggest motives far beyond the pursuit of justice.
The lawmakers taken into custody were Cllr. Koffa of District Two, Grand Kru County; Dixon Seboe of District 16, Montserrado County; Abu Kamara of District 15, Montserrado County; Jacob Debee II of Grand Gedeh County; and Priscilla Cooper of District 5, Montserrado County, a member of the ruling Unity Party.
ALL WERE DETAINED following police interrogation led by the Liberia National Police under the command of Inspector General Gregory Coleman.
BUT NOT all were treated equally.
AFTER HOURS in police custody, Representative Cooper reportedly collapsed and was later granted medical release by the Monrovia City Court. Her four CDC-aligned counterparts, however, received no such consideration. Even in the face of urgent legal pleas for medical relief — particularly for Representative Kamara, who reportedly suffered elevated blood pressure — the court denied release.
THE REMAINING LAWMAKERS were then transferred under heavy police escort to the Monrovia Central Prison, widely known as “South Beach”.
THE OPTICS ARE difficult to ignore. A member of the ruling Unity Party’s legislative bloc is allowed to return home under medical supervision, while opposition lawmakers are paraded through the capital under armed guard. The arrests were carried out late on a Friday — strategically timed, it appears, to delay court challenges and legislative responses until after the weekend, ensuring that no immediate interventions could be mounted.
THIS PATTERN SPEAKS not to impartial justice, but to political calculus.
AS PUBLIC ATTENTION remained gripped by these events, the crisis deepened with the arrest of Cllr. Janga Augustus Kowo, Chairman of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC). His offense was organizing what police described as an unauthorized and disorderly protest at the Temple of Justice.
IN REALITY, KOWO had joined hundreds of Liberians peacefully demanding transparency and fairness for the detained lawmakers. The protest was neither violent nor disruptive — except to those who may have found its message inconvenient.
DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL For Operations, Colonel Nelson Freeman, insisted the arrest was procedural, not political. “This is not about politics. This is about law and order,” he stated. But in a country with a long memory of authoritarian overreach, that defense rang hollow. For many, the arrest of Kowo only confirmed that the police are not serving justice — they are serving an agenda.
FOUR OF LIBERIA’S leading opposition parties swiftly responded, issuing a joint statement calling for the immediate release of the detained lawmakers and urging the government to respect due process. The Alternative National Congress (ANC), Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVEE), and Citizens Movement for Change (CMC) likened the arrests to past political crackdowns under undemocratic regimes.
THE STATEMENT, signed by high-profile political figures including former President George Weah (CDC), Alexander Cummings (ANC), Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah Sr. (MOVEE), and Musa Hassan Bility (CMC), expressed alarm at what they described as a “politically motivated effort to undermine opposition lawmakers.”
“THE RECENT ACTIONS Taken against these individuals, who pose no flight risk, are deeply concerning and reminiscent of a darker chapter in our nation’s history, where the judiciary was manipulated for political gains,” the statement read.
REPRESENTATIVE BILITY delivered an even sharper rebuke at a political rally in Kakata, Margibi County. Speaking before a crowd of supporters, Bility described the Boakai administration as a “creeping monster” that had chosen to wield state power not for reform, but for retaliation. He accused the President of prioritizing the destabilization of the Legislature over national reconciliation, and warned that the administration’s current trajectory could lead to mass arrests of opposition figures.
“THAT POINT HE wants to prove — we will not allow you to prove it,” Bility declared, accusing the government of abandoning the democratic mandate upon which it was elected. He further criticized President Boakai for failing to investigate growing allegations of corruption within his own ranks, instead choosing to pursue former officials and opposition voices through judicial intimidation.
IN A NOTABLE moment, Bility disclosed that he had consulted former President Weah, urging him to take a stand against what he characterized as a rising threat to multiparty democracy in Liberia.
BUT PERHAPS the most stinging rebuke came from within the ruling coalition itself. The Liberty Party, a key partner in the Unity Party’s electoral alliance, broke ranks to issue a blistering statement condemning the arrests. In their view, the late Friday detentions were not legal strategy but political spectacle — reminiscent of authoritarian practices used to “persecute, not prosecute.”
THE PARTY expressed dismay that Representative Cooper — a member of their National Executive Committee — was implicated in the case despite asserting her innocence repeatedly. They further questioned why she was granted medical relief while her colleagues were denied, raising serious concerns about unequal application of the law.
THE CONTRADICTION is glaring, and the hypocrisy impossible to ignore. On one hand, the Unity Party declared Representative Cooper innocent in public statements; on the other, it endorsed the ongoing detention of her opposition colleagues under dubious legal conditions and absent clear evidence.
WHEN EVEN the administration’s allies begin to question the credibility of the legal process, it signals a dangerous erosion of trust in the justice system itself.
WHAT MAKES THIS episode particularly tragic is how disturbingly familiar it feels. Liberia has seen this playbook before.
IN 1955, UNDER President William V. S. Tubman, a seemingly minor incident involving a farmhand named Paul Dunbar spiraled into a fabricated assassination attempt. The incident was used as justification to arrest prominent political figures, including former President Edwin Barclay. A security officer even went so far as to shoot himself in the hand and blame Dunbar, just to feed the narrative. What followed was a sweeping crackdown aimed at eliminating opposition.
IN THE 1980s, President Samuel Doe weaponized the security services to dismantle rival factions within his own military and beyond. One infamous episode involved Gray D. Allison, who was implicated in a politically orchestrated scandal tied to the killing of a patrolman. Witnesses were manipulated, and evidence was distorted, all to reinforce Doe’s grip on power.
THESE EPISODES WERE not aberrations — they were deliberate strategies used to consolidate authority and suffocate dissent, cloaked in the language of justice.
IN 2025, THE uniforms are newer, and the press conferences are slicker, but the tactics remain the same. Arrest first. Explain later. Detain today. Investigate tomorrow.
DEPUTY IG FREEMAN’S insistence that this is “about law and order” no longer holds weight in a nation where law has too often become the servant of power, and order is enforced only on those out of favor. The question must be asked where is this same urgency when those aligned with the ruling party are accused of wrongdoing? Where is the impartiality? Where is the credibility?
THE IRONY COULD not be more profound. Gregory Coleman, the man now leading this new wave of enforcement, bears the same surname as S. D. Coleman Sr., a victim of similar abuses under Tubman’s regime. Coleman Sr. was imprisoned without cause, and his family spent decades trying to clear his name. Today, someone bearing that same name is at the helm of a police force accused of carrying out political arrests. This is not justice fulfilled — it is history repeating itself with a bitter twist.
AS THE TRUTH and Reconciliation Commission has long warned, Liberia’s democratic vulnerability stems from a refusal to confront and dismantle the legacy of state-sponsored repression. We did not rebuild our institutions after war and dictatorship — we inherited them. And now we are paying the price for our reluctance to reform.
THIS IS NOT merely a legal matter. It is a moral crisis and a democratic reckoning. The fire that burned part of the Capitol may have turned brick to ash, but what is being scorched now is something far more precious.
IF THE CHARGES against these lawmakers are real, then due process must prevail, and the state must present its case with transparency and fairness. But if these arrests are part of a calculated political campaign to neutralize the opposition and intimidate dissenters, then we must name this moment for what it is a democratic backslide in plain sight.
LIBERIA DOES NOT need louder sirens or longer chains. It needs independent courts, accountable leadership, and law enforcement that serves all — not just those in power.
FROM TUBMAN TO Doe, and now to Boakai, the pattern is clear. The question is not whether this cycle exists. The question is whether we will ever break it?
