Joseph Boakai, Jr., son of the President says he has no connection to the drug cartels.
In his first public remarks since a viral video threatened him over Liberia’s record cocaine bust, Joseph Boakai Jr. addressed the nation directly Wednesday, denying any involvement in drug trafficking, explaining how his name became tangled in the case, and welcoming what he called a full, impartial investigation. It is, he said, “most likely the first and only time” he will publicly address the allegations.
By Rodney D. Sieh, rodney.sieh@frontpageafricaonline.com
MONROVIA — Joseph Boakai Jr., the son of President Joseph Boakai Sr. and known widely as “Jojo,” broke a three-year public silence Wednesday morning to deny, directly and personally, any connection to narcotics trafficking. It came days after a viral video showed armed men threatening him over Liberia’s record US$318 million cocaine seizure.
Like every Liberian, regardless of political affiliation or social standing, [I] should want those responsible for the presence of drugs in this country to be identified, prosecuted, and brought to justice,” Boakai Jr. said. “This fight is bigger than politics and it is bigger than personalities.” He said he was speaking now, after years of letting rumors and accusations go unanswered, becau se “the seriousness of the allegations requires me to speak.
Distance From Government
Boakai Jr. said he made a deliberate choice at the start of 2024 to step back from government affairs, so officials could do their jobs “without anyone suggesting that I was exercising influence simply because I am the President’s son.” His relationship to the Presidency, he said, “is one of family — not constitutional authority,” and he neither makes government decisions nor directs government institutions. He pointed to his own departure from the Liberia Maritime Authority, where he used to work, saying he’s been back only once since the 2023 election, “simply to appreciate the staff who had worked alongside me.”
The 3 A.M. Message
Boakai Jr. walked through, in detail, the threat that pulled him into this case. A few mornings ago, he said, while he was asleep at almost 3 a.m., he got a WhatsApp message from a number tracing to Colombia, accusing him of involvement in narcotics trafficking and threatening him.
“When I read the message, I was at first amused and immediately believed it to be a foolish attempt to manufacture a false connection between myself and criminal activity,” he said. He said he wrote back rejecting the accusation, then blocked the number, took a screenshot, and passed it along to both the Liberia National Police and the National Security Agency.
The next day, he said, a video surfaced online showing his WhatsApp profile picture, his phone number, and the threatening message — but not his response. “What immediately stood out was what had been deliberately omitted,” Boakai Jr. said. “The creators of the video chose not to include my response to the message, and they chose not to show that I rejected the allegations. These omissions fundamentally altered the impression the video sought to create.”
Explaining the Touré Connection
Looking more closely at the video, Boakai Jr. said, he recognized a second man in a photo alongside his own — Ibrahima Touré — and said he told the Director General of the National Security Agency right away that he knew him.
Masked men believed to be associated with the drug cartel accused Jojo of being their associate, and issued an ultimatum to the Liberian government, demanding the release of their detained associates and the seized drugs; warning that they would forcibly retrieve them if their demands were not met.
He said he’d first met Touré earlier this year through a mutual acquaintance, Habib Sheriff, whom he described as “a young man who had returned to Liberia from the United States” and was exploring legitimate business opportunities. Their conversations with Touré, he said, centered on sports development and a proposed visit to the Real Madrid Foundation, and he made clear from the start that he wasn’t a government official and couldn’t make commitments on the government’s behalf. That’s why, he said, the eventual trip included Liberia’s Minister of Youth and Sports and the Liberian Ambassador to France. Three meetings followed with Real Madrid Foundation representatives and with medical technology and telemedicine companies interested in Liberia’s healthcare sector.
After he returned to Liberia in May, he said, there were separate conversations about possible private ventures in hospitality and food services — “ordinary business conversations,” nothing more, and nothing finalized. “At no point did Mr. Touré ask me to facilitate anything illegal,” he said. “At no point did he ask me to use my family name or any perceived influence to obtain favors from the Government. The same is true of Mr. Habib Sheriff.”
On Mark Kuiah: “Friendship Is Not Immunity”
Boakai Jr. also took on the speculation swirling around his friendship with Mark Kuiah, calling him a longtime friend to many, someone he’s never had reason to see as anything but law-abiding. But he didn’t leave it there. “Friendship is not immunity from the law,” he said. “If any friend of mine is found to have violated the laws of this Republic, that person must answer before the law like every other citizen. I will never interfere with that process. But likewise, I will never falsely accuse someone simply to satisfy public opinion. Justice requires evidence. Justice requires due process. Justice requires fairness.”
The Denial, and an Offer to Cooperate
Boakai Jr. laid out his denial in plain terms: “I have never participated in discussions involving narcotics trafficking. I have never facilitated illegal drug activity. I have never accepted money in exchange for influence. I have never used my relationship to the Presidency to shield anyone from accountability.”
He said he welcomes “a full, impartial, and thorough investigation,” and promised full cooperation with the Liberia National Police, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the National Security Agency, or “any competent authority” that needs it. “I have nothing to hide,” he said.
He closed by speaking directly to Liberia’s young people, calling the fight against narcotics a job that belongs to “every family, every community, every religious institution, every educator, and every citizen,” and asked that any scrutiny of his own conduct be “guided by facts rather than assumptions, by evidence rather than speculation, and by truth rather than rumor.”
Background
Boakai Jr.’s statement comes on the heels of a viral video in which armed men, holding up samples of the cocaine seized in the July 21 VOA Community raid, threatened him over what they called a betrayed partnership and demanded the return of “our goods.” Sam Gaye, head of Liberia’s Executive Protection Service, had already responded publicly by daring the group to come collect their “merchandise” at a planned burn site. Touré himself had already denied any involvement when FrontPageAfrica reached him separately, as had a relative, Sheikh Kuyateh, who gave a secondhand account on SpoonTV describing Touré backing away from an unrelated favor request the moment he realized it touched the drug case. The NSA has said Habib Sheriff isn’t an NSA agent, despite claims otherwise that circulated with the video.
The threat landed in the middle of a drug crisis that’s consumed Liberia’s national security conversation since early June — starting with a US$19.2 million seizure at Roberts International Airport and building to the record US$318 million VOA Community bust, a case that’s since produced a formal charge sheet naming twelve defendants, the firing of a police intelligence chief over an alleged bribe, and several security personnel under interrogation.
None of the people Boakai Jr. named in his statement — Touré, Sheriff, or Kuiah — has been charged in connection with the case. All are presumed innocent unless and until proven otherwise in a court of law.
