A daughter of slain Liberian president Samuel Kanyon Doe welcomes planned state burial by the Liberian government for her late father.
By Lincoln G. Peters
Monrovia, Liberia, April 9, 2025 – Mrs. Celue Doe-Addo, daughter of slain Liberian President, Samuel K. Doe, says proposed state burial initiated by President Joseph N. Boakai to honor and give her late father and former President William R. Tolbert befitting state burials is a great step towards national healing that she wholeheartedly welcomes.
Celue Doe is the biological daughter of the late president, but a stepdaughter of Madam Nancy B. Doe, as her biological mom hails from Grand Cape Mount County, Western Liberia.
Speaking late Monday, April 7, 2025, on a local radio station here, Mrs Doe-Addo extended appreciation and gratitude to President Boakai, regarding the proposed plan to give her late father and the late President Tolbert state burials.
President Doe, then a Master Sergeant in the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) led 17 non-commissioned army officers and assassinated President Tolbert on April 12, 1980, ending one-party rule in Liberia.
According to her, the proposed state burial will help in reconciling the country, something she believes will greatly close the nation’s old wounds.
“I’m deeply honored and grateful to President Joseph N. Boakai for initiating a process for the reburial of my father and President Tolbert. I’m excited about this because nobody has cared to think of doing this. This will help in the healing of Liberia, giving state burial to these presidents. Also, this is a brilliant Public Relations for Liberia, as it says a lot about who President Boakai is. I met with the President, and he told me that he wants me to play a significant role, and I accepted. Hope we all work together so we can bring closure to this”, she states.
Providing update on her peace and reconciliation tour recently in Nimba County and subsequent reunion with her late father’s home county, Grand Gedeh, and her mother’s home, Bomi County, she said that it was an exciting and emotional moment embarking on such journey.
According to her, she concluded her tour to Nimba County, preaching peace, reconciliation and unity between Nimba and Grand Gedeh counties.
The late President Doe, who hailed from Grand Gedeh, was captured and brutally executed in 1990 during the Liberian Civil War by the late Senator Prince Yormie Johnson of Nimba County, who was leader of the disbanded rebels INPFL.
Celue says she believes that everything happens in life the way it happens because God wants it to happen, clarifying that she holds no hate in her heart for the people of Nimba.
She discloses that during her tour in Nimba, she met with traditional communities and various groupings, and they shared thoughts and charted a new path to peaceful co-existence.
She points out that prior to coming to Liberia, she had a very good and solid relationship with some of the names believe to be enemies to the Doe family, especially the Tolbert, Johnson and Quiwonkpa families in the United States.
She notes that between 2011 and2012, when Liberians started actively using Facebook, the platform was used to showcase violent and brutal images of her father and others, something, she laments, created more negative image in her mind and caused her to seek a therapist.
“If we Liberians can really know, and see that we don’t hate each other, it will be good. Tribalism is bad. People hate people because of tribes, and it makes no sense. Lies and propaganda brought division between Nimba and Grand Gedeh. Are we satisfied now? People lost their families, and many things happened during the civil war. We are excited for this new beginning”, she concludes.
Similarly, former first lady Nancy B. Doe, is supportive of plans by the Boakai Administration to give her late husband a state burial.
“The Doe family— consisting of myself, our children, and our direct bloodline—has been working closely with His Excellency President Joseph Boakai’s government to ensure that my husband receives a dignified and rightful reburial. A reburial date will be announced in due course by the appropriate authorities, and no unauthorized actions by Zoe Emmanuel Pennue will be tolerated.
She had opposed earlier plans by Senator Zoe Emmanuel Pennue to memorialize her husband, terming it as unauthorized.
A statement issued on April 3, 2025, by the Doe Family reads, “It has come to our attention that a supposed Military Traditional Memorial Service has been organized by Senator Zoe Emmanuel Pennue, a man who has continuously sought to advance his own SINISTER agenda under the guise of honoring Liberia’s fallen leader, the late President Samuel Kanyon Doe, Sr.
We wish to make it abundantly and categorically clear that no individual or group of individuals, especially led by Senator Zoe Emmanuel Pennue, has the right to interfere with my husband’s remains without the expressed approval and involvement of myself and our appointed spiritual leader.”
The statement clarifies that Senator Zoe Emmanuel Pennue is from the Pennue Family and bloodline which makes him a nephew and son to the sister to the late president.
“He has no rightful claim or authority over the Doe family when I’m alive as well as my children and that he must CEASE his UNWARRANTED, ILLEGAL and UNAUTHORIZED interference in matters that concern my family, especially that of the remains of my late husband”, Madam Doe rejects. Editing by Jonathan Browne
