Wonderr K. Freeman, Attorney, CFCS

Liberia prides itself on being the first independent African nation. Its citizens are never shy of brandishing their 177-year-old sovereign country. Yet, every time a major crime occurs in Liberia, surprisingly, this sovereign nation almost always calls for an “independent” foreign investigation. When one considers the repeated calls for independent foreign inquiry, one is hard-pressed to think, ‘What’s the problem with its police service or prosecution system’? We have the Liberian National Police (LNP) – established by law (i.e., LNP Act of 2016) – and many law enforcement agencies with quasi-police powers. Similarly, we have the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) – equally established by law (i.e., Executive Law 1972, Title 12, Chp. 22.4 §22.12) – comprising of the Office of the Solicitor General and [15] County Attorney offices. We also have the prosecutors at the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) since 2008. These institutions are authorized to prosecute criminal conduct. Notwithstanding, every time a major crime occurs, there is a call for “independent” foreign investigation, generally with the presumption that the LNP and the MOJ (Prosecution) are no more than instruments of oppression by the ruling party, as opposed to being impartial arbiters of justice. There’s a further presumption that our systems are manned by incompetents or ill-equipped officers.

LNP and MOJ as Tools for Political Oppression

Since 2005, Liberia has been governed by either the Unity Pary (UP/GOL 2005 – 2017; 2024-present) or the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC/GOL, 2018 – 2023). These ruling parties had the opportunity to legislate and the financial resources to implement reforms necessary to make our law enforcement and prosecution services independent, unbiased, and professional. But that’s not what they do when they are in power. When the UP was in power (2005-2017), they used the Liberian National Police (LNP) and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ/Prosecution) to oppress opposition figures and other independent activists. And then, when power switched to the CDC (2018-2023), the UP began to cry foul and to ask for “independent” foreign investigation. And when power switched again to the UP, the CDC began to feel the heat from a biased LNP and MOJ/Prosecution that take their “marching orders”, not from the constitution and statutes of Liberia but from ruling party bosses. For example, the CDC is now crying foul and calling for “foreign independent investigations.” But not long ago, it was the CDC that was committing the most unspeakable brutality against their fellow citizens, with the Police frequently being used as the instrument of choice for the brutalities and, at times, cheering on while ruling party thugs unleashed sheer horror on political opponents and other independent activists. See more on CDC’s repression here >>> https://wonderrfreeman.com/the-farmington-whitewash-five-years-of-political-violence-under-president-george-weah-cannot-be-wiped-away-so-easily/law-governance/12/.

Shirking Responsibility to Reform but Calling for Independent Investigations

Let’s take the first example. On December 18, 2024, as political dysfunction set in between those seeking to remove Mr. Fonati Kofa as Speaker and those supporting his remaining, a fire gutted the main building housing Liberia’s National Legislature. Mr. Fonati Kofa, Former Deputy Speaker of Liberia’s House of Representatives and current disputed Speaker, had a pre-existing duty to ensure laws were passed to make the police and prosecution services fair, independent, and professional. Having been a Deputy Speaker for six years, the current “Speaker”, Fonati did nothing but enjoy the spoils of the Speaker’s office. The same Fonati Kofa now spends his time crying foul and calling for foreign “independent” investigations. Why cry foul and call for foreigners to come to Liberia to conduct “independent” investigations when you have been at the pinnacle of power and could just as well have implemented reforms when you had the power to?
Fonati Kofa (on 19, December 2024).
“It’s a very unfortunate and horrible occurrence. We are thankful that no lives were lost,”… “we look forward to the investigation, I think we may also need the government to ask for international assistance to do more forensic investigation in this matter.”

The case of the LNP raid of the headquarters of the CDC (August 2024) demonstrates another unfortunate example of the incomprehensible display of inferiority complex – by GOL officials, past and present – shirking their responsibility to reform the police and prosecution services but when outside of government, suddenly realize that the LNP and MOJ (Prosecution) are politically biased, unprofessional and incapable of carrying out an independent and fair investigation. At about 5 am on August 22, 2024, the LNP & LDEA (drug enforcement agency) sought to search houses in the Small Town community (i.e., next door) to CDC headquarters. The Police and LDEA alleged illegal drug dealing in the vicinity. This seemingly routine police operation quickly escalated into a violent police repression of CDC partisans. The partisans had converged on their party headquarters – after being called by their party leaders to come and protect their HQ. Later reports showed that the LNP & LDEA operated under an “irregular” and possibly “illegal” warrant. No one was ever held accountable for the violence. Unsurprisingly, the CDC called for an “independent” foreign investigation. The MOJ pretended to investigate. Not surprisingly also, the CDC flatly refused to participate – terming the MOJ as a party to the dispute. Since the UP returned to power, the CDC has written at least a dozen complaints to the international community calling for “independent” foreign investigations. Yet, for six years, they had power and could just as well have passed laws and have instituted reforms to make the police independent and unbiased. Of course, that was not a priority for them. George Weah spent most of his time producing hit songs, dancing, smoking, and just merrymaking.
Jefferson Koijee – Former Mayor and US-sanctioned CDC official (on 22 August 2024)
“We’re calling the immediate attention of ECOWAS, AU, the international community, the Liberian people, and CDCIANS in particular to this unscrupulous action by the Boakai administration, which is aimed at disrupting our hard-earned peace.”

Another stark example of the unprofessionalism of the LNP and the MOJ (Prosecution) was the case of the unspeakable violence against protesting UL students on July 26, 2022. A group of UL students, mostly SUP members, sought to protest against the CDC government in the vicinity of the United States [Monrovia] embassy. The CDC government organized a counter-protest and used hooligans and vandals to attack the protesting UL students, causing several injuries and the near killing of student leader Chris Walter Sisulu. At the time, there was a shocking video of LNP offices standing by and doing absolutely nothing as ruling party thugs viciously attacked the UL students. Worst still, the LNP did not bother to investigate or arrest the culprits until the international community issued a statement condemning the violence and calling for action. Under the CDC regime, the case was never handled with the seriousness it deserved, and by 2023, all the accused were fully onboard the George Weah re-election bid. It’s unclear if anyone was ever punished for violence. Apparently, at the time, it didn’t appear to the CDC that the LNP and MOJ were biased and unprofessional. Today, the very CDC that once used the LNP and MOJ to attack opponents is now calling every other day for “independent” foreign investigations. Wouldn’t it have been far better if they had used their time in power to change laws to make the LNP and MOJ more independent?

The Real Problem with the Police and Prosecution Services

Police officers must be recruited for their competence, integrity, and professionalism. We need to change the LNP Act of 2016 (§22.76) to ensure that LNP chiefs and middle-level zone commanders are recruited and promoted based on the same criteria noted here. But that is not what we have now. Under the current law, when a political party wins power, they have the power to sack all the top-level police officers and replace them with stooges. After these stooges take office, they use their offices to cater to every whim and caprice of the ruling party officials. Of course, since their jobs are attained and retained by the “will and pleasure” of the President (and the ruling party by extension), the LNP bosses’ sole job now is to please the President and the ruling party, whatever party that is. As things stand, we can change government as much as we want, but if we don’t change the LNP Act to factor out the politicization of law enforcement, we will continually have a police force that is biased, unprofessional, and unfit for purpose. In other countries, where police officers are unbiased, professional, and independent, it was never done by magic or rocket science. Their police laws were structured and restructured to ensure that the recruitment and retention of top and middle-level officers are completely devoid of politics. The laws were structure to ensure that the police is accountable to the community they serve.
Additional necessary reforms should include an independent oversight board for the LNP. The board must include a significant presence of civil society, and this board shall then be responsible for investigating police misconduct and recommending appropriate and dissuasive disciplinary actions against errant police officers. Right now, police misconduct is investigated by the LNP. When LNP investigates LNP, objectivity is lost, and malpractice is swept under the carpet. Remember, in the first instance, most complaints result from lower-level officers implementing instructions from higher-ups. So, the police complaints system becomes effectively a giant misconduct protection racket. To get a better LNP, we must revise the LNP Act – taking out what does not work and putting in what works. To think that we will institute no reforms and suddenly, somehow, the LNP will magically transform itself and become unbiased and professional is pure hallucination. Without reforms, the Police will remain the same biased and unprofessional institution dedicated to pleasing the ruling party.

A similar situation exists with the prosecution and the judicial services. The President appoints the Solicitor General and all the county attorneys, deputy county attorneys, and all judges. Get a judicial service commission to handle the judges’ appointment and end the culture of sucking up to the President and politicians for appointments or promotions. Similarly, every prosecutor in Liberia serves at the will and pleasure of the President. We must remember that the Presidency is, first and foremost, a political office. As a result, the President has a reflexive instinct to act out of political expediency. Of course, political expediency frequently clashes with the administration of justice. That’s why, in Liberia, we see prosecutorial decisions routinely being made on grounds of political expediency. We must equally change Executive Law, Title 12, and possibly the Constitution (where necessary) to provide for a recruitment process that is completely void of politics. Get an independent panel to recruit prosecutors and public defenders and give the tenure. This is how you get to an unbiased and professional prosecution and public defense systems.

A prosecutor should not have to choose between justice and feeding his family. She or he should be able to do both. That’s not what we have now. Right now, if the prosecutor decides to prosecute a case that the ruling party opposes, that prosecutor will soon find himself/herself without a job. That is what the current laws provide for. So, naturally, the prosecutor chooses “feeding her family”– especially in instances where the pursuit of justice conflicts with the interests of the ruling party. This provision of our laws makes the prosecutors subservient to politicians and is the prime reason for the lack of independence in our prosecution system. As we can all agree, our system is not working. It must be changed! Luckily, this is a statutory provision and it can be changed simply by amending or replacing the statute. Without these changes, we will spend the next 100 years calling for “independent” foreign investigations. Common sense dictates that we do things differently.

It is simply ludicrous to have prosecutors on GOL’s payroll, but each time a major crime occurs, we call for “independent foreign investigators”. Why not just revise our laws to ensure our prosecutors and judges are independent? The most effective way to do this is to remove the President’s [carte blanche] power to appoint and dismiss and give that power to an independent body of technocrats. This body need not be permanent. It could be an ad-hoc committee. It could also be a board-like body, meeting quarterly or annually to recruit a shortlist from which appointments can be made. These reforms, combined with tenure for prosecutors, defense counsels, and judges, will go a long way in promoting the unbiased administration of justice in Liberia. Either we choose the path of reforms or we resign ourselves to continuously calling for “foreign investigations”. To me, it’s clearly a matter of choice since we can’t have it both ways. It’s been 177 years of repeatedly calling for “independent foreign investigators.” It’s time to do something different – for different result. It’s called common sense!

Reforms should include shutting down the NSA and the LDEA. Definitely!!! For example, millions of US dollars are wasted annually at the National Security Agency (NSA) and at LDEA. Those two institutions are a drag on the national coffers while adding nothing to policing, prosecution, judicial services, or rehabilitation. Shut down that useless NSA. Shut it down. Shut down the LDEA. And then you can now redirect those precious resources to valuable reform measures. Let’s apply some common sense to our failing justice system and stop the incessant call for “independent” foreign investigation.

Wonderr K. Freeman is a Liberian Investment Attorney, Political Economist, Accountant, and Certified Financial Crimes Specialist (CFCS) currently based in Minneapolis, USA. Mr. Freeman’s professional interests span the intersection of law and economics, including the political economy of development, economic justice, international trade/investment law, and financial crimes law. He can be reached at [email protected]. He blogs at https://wonderrfreeman.com