A devastating new report reveals a coordinated and illegal strategy by President Joseph Boakai’s Unity Party to systematically dismantle political opposition, weaponize the justice system, and secure power beyond the 2029 elections through a campaign of judicial persecution and financial coercion.
At the heart of the scheme is Montserrado County Solicitor General, Cllr. Augustine Fiayah, who is alleged to be acting on a direct and unconstitutional mandate from the Unity Party National Executive Committee. Insiders confirm the committee has compiled a secret blacklist of key opposition figures, ordering Cllr. Fiayah to fabricate charges against them with the explicit goal of having them imprisoned until after the 2029 elections, thereby decapitating any credible challenge to President Boakai’s rule. Cllr. Fiayah is not only accused of deliberately ignoring torture to secure prosecutions but is also the co-sponsor of a drastic new Central Bank regulation designed to trap political opponents in endless litigation until after the 2029 elections.
According to multiple sources within the security and justice sector, the Solicitor General was personally made aware of medical evidence indicating defendants in a high-profile arson case had been subjected to torture. Despite this, he refused to order an inquiry and proceeded with the prosecution, in a flagrant violation of Article 21(e) of the Liberian Constitution, the Criminal Procedure Law, and Liberia’s international obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture.
Simultaneously, a controversial new Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) regulation on appearance bonds has been exposed as a political tool engineered by the Solicitor General himself. The policy mandates unrealistically high financial guarantees, effectively making bail unaffordable and ensuring that defendants, particularly in politically charged cases, remain tethered to the courts for years. This directive was deliberately designed to prevent lawmakers currently facing charges—like former House Speaker J. Fonati Koffa from securing bail. By creating an impossible bureaucratic maze requiring notarized and certified audited financial statements for every single bond, the government has effectively suspended the constitutional right to bail for its rivals. This is not financial regulation; it is state-sponsored pre-trial detention through economic means.
The combined effect of these actions reveals an integrated strategy to cripple opposition. The process begins with politicized indictments decided in Executive Council meetings of Unity Party, rubber-stamped by hand-picked grand juries. Torture allegations are then ignored to sustain prosecutions, while the new CBL regulation ensures defendants are immobilized by the legal system, unable to campaign or participate meaningfully in public life ahead of the 2029 electoral cycle.
This pattern represents a severe erosion of the rule of law, prosecutorial independence, and fundamental human rights protections, marking a direct assault on Liberia’s democratic stability. The Solicitor General’s continued service is now seen as an active threat to public trust and constitutional order, with critics citing his gross abuse of office, enablement of human rights violations, and open engineering of policies for political suppression. The US State Department’s 2024 Human Rights Report on Liberia also notes serious human rights violations, including arbitrary killings, torture, and limitations on freedom of expression and media freedom.
In the face of this mounting crisis, pressure is intensifying from civil society, the legal community, and governance watchdogs. Formal demands are being prepared for his immediate resignation, a full independent investigation into the torture cover-up, a judicial review of the CBL regulation, and legislative oversight into prosecutorial misconduct. The Ministry of Justice and the Ruling Unity Party have thus far remained silent, refusing to respond to these damning allegations.
The administration’s much-publicized “anti-corruption drive” is now exposed as a transparent smokescreen for a vindictive political purge. The recent indictments of individuals such as businesswoman Finda Bundoo and the widow of former Interim President Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer, Madam Thelma Duncan Sawyer, are widely condemned as hoax charges and classic examples of selective justice, intended solely to silence opposition voices and cripple the strength of the Coalition for Democratic Change.
The evidence is clear and damning. The Boakai administration is not governing; it is conspiring. It has launched a multi-pronged attack involving a secret blacklist, a weaponized judiciary, and a corrupted financial regulatory system to ensure its hold on power. This is not the action of a government confident in its record, but of a regime terrified of the will of the people, actively working to subvert it before the next election. Liberia’s democratic institutions are under direct and sustained attack from within.
