George Weah’s Liberia: A Land Governed By Gangsters, Hooligans, Serial Killers, Criminals, And Rascals

The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
April 8, 2022

At a memorial service organized by the University of Liberia in honor of Dr. Amos Sawyer, former interim president of Liberia and a historical icon, the Mayor of the City of Monrovia arrived with a group of over 50 gangsters, underage drug abusers, disadvantaged youths, ruffians and hardened criminals. They disrupted the normal flow of the program and were continually chanting battle cries, thereby bringing activities at the program to an abrupt end. As he left the program, Jefferson Koijee unleashed these hardened criminals and ruffians against the people at the university. They immediately began attacking students, the university’s police, Boy Scouts, faculty, and other peaceful citizens attending the memorial service on campus with machetes, knives, stones, sticks, and other deadly weapons they had brought along for the planned bloodbath.

The Monrovia City Mayor's ruthlessness depicts to the Liberian public and our international development partners that he has a base where these criminals and serial killers are trained to kill, torture, rape, and attack anyone who disagrees with him or President Weah. The group is known as the Sabu Unit. They are loyal to Koijee, and each one receives violent skills to carry out attacks whenever and however he wishes. Koijee practically runs an academy of criminals.

Koijee lived for several years with Chucky Taylor, the son of former President Charles Taylor, who is now serving a 99-year jail sentence in America. He received specialized training in torturing, cruelty, unlawful killings, physical violence to life, health, and the physical or mental well-being of persons, sexual violence, rape, and sexual slavery, conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces and using them to participate actively in hostilities, abductions and forced labor, enslavement, and pillaging, among others. Jefferson Koijee's Sabut Unit includes underaged boys, drug traffickers, drug users, ruffians, and criminals. The Sabu Unit terrorizes peaceful Liberians and attacks political opponents of the Weah-led government. Chucky Taylor’s protege is deploying the tactics his now-imprisoned leader used during the peak of the Liberian civil war against Liberians.

Surprisingly, Koijee is committing these crimes against the Liberian populace using state resources under a democratically elected government headed by a global football icon. He sits as the Mayor of Monrovia; therefore, he also has legal institutions, like the Monrovia City Police, to protect his gang and hide under the law to orchestrate his lawlessness against targets. There is terror everywhere in Monrovia and parts adjacent.

A few hours after the incident on the University of LIBERIA campus, Spoon Talk, a late-night talk show on Spoon FM in Monrovia, reached out to Justice Minister Frank Musa Dean. The talk show hosts intended to seek information about the government's plan to prosecute the perpetrators of the violence at Prof. Dr. Amos Sawyer’s Memorial service. To the astonishment of the radio station and its audience, Mr. Dean said, “nothing worth reporting.” Even though local media had reported that several students were wounded and taken to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital and other health facilities in Monrovia, the Justice Ministry and the Liberia National Police did not see anything worth reporting or investigating. What a sad situation!

President Weah lived and worked in other civilizations and democratic nations throughout his footballing career. He served as an ambassador for UNICEF in Liberia and became the first peace ambassador appointed by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in December 2012. Therefore, it is shocking and embarrassing that President Weah runs a government wherein officials have total disregard for the rule of law, human rights, good governance, and other democratic tenets that would foster development and engender a peaceful LIBERIA. George Weah, more than anyone in postwar LIBERIA, should fight mightily to sustain the peaceful nation that he received from his predecessor, Nobel Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

The City Mayor’s violent disruption at the University of Liberia is just the tip of the iceberg. Since Mr. Weah was elected president, over 20 mysterious deaths, murders, and political assassinations have occurred without any resolution by the government. Despite growing criticism and public outcry for justice in these killings, little or nothing has been done by the government. Is Jefferson Koijee’s Sabu Unit responsible for these deaths, or is it part of the government's broader strategy to instill fear among Liberian citizens? Well, there is no hope for an immediate answer in sight, until a more responsible government is elected.

The over 20 mysterious deaths do not include the countless number of motorcyclists, commuters, pedestrians, and passengers who got killed or had body parts chopped off by machetes carrying criminals all over Monrovia. In most parts of Monrovia and its environs, making a phone call could lead to one's death or severe injury. Take a look at the growing number of communities with active criminal hideouts. They are very dangerous to walk along day and night:

1. Broad Street, Ducor, And The Old Education Building.
2. 20th Street, Monrovia.
3. Chicken Soup Factory Junction.
4. New Georgia Estate Junction.
5. Saye Town.
6. Bardnersville, Dry Rice Market Junction.
7. Johnsonville Pepper Wluh Town Market.
8. Duport Road Junction.
9. Elwa Junction.
10.  Gsa Road Junction.
11.  Soul Clinic Community.
12.  Center Street, Around The Cemetery.
13.  Kardoma Cemetery, Gardnersville.
14.  West Point Community.
15.  New Kru Town.
16.  Logan Town Rice Store.
17.  Bardnersville Junction
18.  72nd Community.
19.  Airfield, Old Folks.
20.  Fiamah.
21.  12th Street, Sinkor.
22.  Chocolate City Junction.
23.  St. Michael Junction.
24.  Caldwell, Etc.

With the existential threat insecurity poses to the survival of Liberia, Mr. George Weah remains quiet. The president is undisturbed by the increasing state of insecurity, lawlessness, abuse of power, mysterious deaths, human rights violations, lack of accountability, etc.  Are these things happening at the will and pleasure of Liberia’s footballing president? Again, the answer to this question remains unknown. While the cry for justice, accountability, good governance, the rule of law, and security lingers on, there is an ever-increasing likelihood of trouble ahead.

---

About the Author: Mulbah Kesselly is the Secretary-General of the ANC Youth Congress. He can be reached via secretaryinyc2019@gmail.com

---