In a move of profound historical significance, aimed at fostering peace, reconciliation, and unity in post-war Liberia, President Joseph N. Boakai has declared his government’s commitment to provide a dignified burial to former Presidents William R. Tolbert and Samuel K. Doe, who were brutally killed while their respective governments were violently overthrown.
By Gabriel I.H. Williams, contributing writer
Also to be given an official burial are 13 officials of Tolbert’s government, who were publicly executed by a firing squad in the wake of the April 1980 military coup led by then Master Sergeant Samuel Doe of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL). During that coup, President Tolbert was assassinated.
The 13 senior officials included the Speaker of the House of Representatives, President Pro-Tempore of the Liberian Senate, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, Chairman of the ruling party, the Ministers of National Defense, Justice, and Commerce, and also the Foreign Minister- who was being talked about as a potential candidate to become the first black Secretary General of the United Nations (UN).
President Boakai is applauded for constituting the National Committee for the Reburial of Presidents Tolbert and Doe, which is led by Education Minister, Dr. Jarso Maley Jallah. Distinguished members of the committee include Bishop James B. Sellee of the Episcopal Church of Liberia; Bishop Samuel J. Quire of the United Methodist Church of Liberia; former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, Gloria Musu Scott; Senator Zoe Pennoh of Grand Gedeh County (late Doe’s cousin); and Madam Elfreida Stewart Tamba, former Commissioner General of the Liberia Revenue Authority (daughter of one of the 13 executed officials), who represents the April 22nd Memorial Group. The April 22nd Memorial Group, established in memory of those killed during the 1980 coup, has worked tirelessly since the end of Liberia’s civil war to ensure a dignified burial for President Tolbert and the others.
Since President Boakai made the pronouncement when he delivered his Annual Message (State of the Nation Address) in January 2025, the remains of President Tolbert and his 13 executed officials have been exhumed from a mass grave where they were buried since 1980. According to media reports, the remains of President Tolbert and the 13 officials have been reburied on the grounds of the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary outside Monrovia, awaiting the official reburial ceremonies in July. An ordained minister of the Baptist denomination and former president of the Baptist World Alliance – a global religious organization- Tolbert was the Pastor of the historic Zion Grove Baptist Church in his hometown Bensenville in Montserrado County, at the time of his assassination.
Even though President Boakai’s move to rebury the two former Presidents and others is reported to have been well received by the Liberian populace, there are also media reports regarding challenges in locating the remains of former President Doe. The circumstances surrounding Doe’s death have created mysteries regarding how his remains were disposed of.
Nearly a year after the civil war erupted to force him from power, President Doe was captured and tortured to death in September 1990. He was captured by an armed faction called the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), led by Prince Y. Johnson, a soldier who defected from the AFL during Doe’s regime. The INPFL was a breakaway faction from the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor, who became President of Liberia but was later convicted and imprisoned for war crimes committed in neighboring Sierra Leone.
It may be recalled that in his testimony during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings in 2008, Prince Johnson, the longest serving Senator in post-war Liberia who died in November 2024, revealed that the body of President Doe was burnt and his ashes thrown into a river.
However, the mysteries surrounding the whereabouts of Doe’s remains took on yet another wierd twist for me when I was recently contacted by a distinguished Liberian political leader, who was a close aide and confidant of Dr. Amos C. Sawyer, President of the Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) during the civil war. He and other officials closely interacted with Johnson, whose INPFL warring faction was a very important part of IGNU, a power-sharing government that also included political parties and interest groups.
This prominent political figure contacted me after the publication of my article, “Remembering Prince Y. Johnson: A Domineering Warlord and Political Kingmaker,” following Johnson’s death November 28, 2024, at the age of 72. He told me something that left me momentarily shocked. He said, while he and another IGNU official (female) were meeting with the INPFL leader on his base in Caldwell outside Monrovia, Johnson, who was widely known for his theatrics, left to go inside a room. “The next thing I knew when he returned, he (Johnson) threw a skull in my lap and said, this is Samuel Doe,” the former IGNU official recalled.
That conversation left me wondering whether Doe’s skull might still be somewhere in the bush on Johnson’s former Caldwell base, which he fled after Charles Taylor’s NPFL forces attacked and overran the base. Fearing imminent death if captured by Taylor’s forces, Johnson surrendered to the West African peacekeeping force called ECOMOG. He was taken into exile in Nigeria, which led the West African military intervention force to stop the bloodshed in Liberia.
Accordingly, this is a call to the National Committee for the Reburial of Presidents Tolbert and Doe to seek international professional support in searching for the remains – including the skull – of former President Doe within the vicinity of Johnson’s former Caldwell base and other relevant spots that could be identified through investigation.
President Boakai, who is known to be a very quiet and peaceful person, is on course to go down in history as the leader who seriously initiated a process to ensure civil war accountability and national reconciliation in Liberia. For example, a few months upon assuming office, President Boakai took a very courageous step to sign the landmark executive order establishing the War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia (WECCL), which is meant to bring overdue justice to victims of serious abuses committed during the 14-year civil war, which saw widespread atrocities including massacres, rape, and the use of child soldiers.
The Liberian leader must also be applauded for ordering full scale investigations into unresolved cases of mysterious deaths that occurred in recent years in Liberia. These include the cases of four government auditors and three young men who mysteriously died during the administration of President George M. Weah. Circumstances surrounding the gruesome deaths of the auditors in 2020 led to widespread rumors and public speculation that the auditors were allegedly murdered to cover up gross financial crimes during Weah’s administration. For example, Emmanuel Barten Nyeswua, Director General of the Liberia Internal Audit Agency, was found dead at his home from “massive hemorrhage,” among other major injuries, according to medical reports quoted by the media.
Former President Weah and other key officials of his government, including his Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah – who has been indicted for gross economic crimes against the state – must be investigated and prosecuted, if possible, for these and many abuses allegedly perpetrated during the Weah era to loot the resources of the country.
In order to ensure professionalism and the integrity of the investigations, we welcome President Boakai’s directive to seek international expertise, where necessary, as in the case of the fire at the Capitol Building – where fire experts from the U.S. are in Libera assisting with the investigation.
Finally, this is also a call to the President to order a thorough investigation into the recent lawless acts involving soldiers of the AFL against police officers. There could be more trouble ahead if those bad apples are not weeded out of Liberia’s military and paramilitary forces, given the terrible history of soldiers in recent Liberian history. A hint to the wise!
Gabriel I.H. Williams is a career journalist, former diplomat and author. He can be reached at
[email protected].
