Monrovia– President Joseph Nyuma Boakai has dismissed Monrovia City Mayor, John-Charuk Saah Siafa, nominating the General Manager of the Roberts International Airport (RIA) James K. Mulbah, as his replacement as new Mayor.
His replacement, Mulbah joined the ruling Unity Party (UP) last December, declaring his confidence in the leadership and direction of President Boakai. Mulbah made the announcement during the Unity Party’s Homecoming Program, where he arrived at the party’s national headquarters accompanied by a large group of supporters.
In an endorsement said, he said, “My joining Unity Party today is not a political game.” He added that the UP was the first political party he had ever joined and that President Boakai’s stance against corruption was a major reason for his decision.
Asked then whether he harbored ambitions for elected office, he said he could not predict the future and that his focus was on joining the party. Mulbah would require confirmation by the Liberian Senate.
FrontPageAfrica reported early Monday that a prestigious source has informed the Siafa was out of favor with the Unity Party hierarchy after persistent complaints that his institution was being starved.
However, Siafa has been axed after nearly three years of persistent public criticism of his handling of the capital — over piling garbage, unpaid workers and contractors, and allegations of financial irregularities — even as the mayor and his supporters have argued that the national government has never given the MCC the money it needs to do its job.
Siafa was nominated by President Boakai on January 27, 2024, and commissioned in March that year as Monrovia’s 28th mayor, succeeding Jefferson Tamba Koijee with promises to clean the city, restore transparency and depoliticize the MCC. He has been widely reported to be a close relative of the President.
But his tenure has been dogged by controversy. In June 2025, allegations of financial and procurement irregularities at the MCC surfaced in the press, including claims about the rapid elevation of staff to senior paid positions.
Earlier that year, MCC contractors protested in front of City Hall on UN Drive over unpaid wages, and the mayor and the Civil Service Agency came under fire from civil society over the dismissal of civil servants that critics described as political retaliation.
Some of the sharpest attacks have come from within the ruling party itself. In September 2025, Queen Johnson, Deputy Director for Records at the National Port Authority and a staunch UP member, publicly called for Siafa’s dismissal, labeling him corrupt and incompetent. Days later, MCC employees planned a protest demanding his resignation over the city’s persistent sanitation problems. In March 2026, another UP loyalist publicly branded the mayor a criminal amid allegations tied to an audit of the MCC.
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