The civil society group, Independent Civil Society Union of Liberia (ICSUL), is calling for investigation and strict accountability in several unresolved mysterious deaths and the 2023 seizures of huge cache of arms at the Freeport of Monrovia and other places.
ICSUL, in a release issued Saturday, September 19, 2026, highlighted the brutal murder of Liberia Immigration Service officer, Maude Elliott in October, 2021, the discovery of huge cache of assorted military-grade weapons at the Freeport of Monrovia in 2023, and the killings of Charloe Musu and Peace Ambassador, Rev. Richard Tolbert, amongst others, as some of the cases that must be investigated and resolved.
LIS officer, Maude Elliott, in her early 50s, was attacked and killed at her Brewerville residence on October 31, 2021, by unknown individuals, and the killers were said to be on the run. Maude was also a member of the Faith Healing Temple of Jesus Christ where she served as President of the Women Department prior to her ghastly demise.
Shocked neighbors and family members narrated that they found her unconscious in a pool of blood with her belongings scattered, and visible injuries, including cuts to her neck and forehead. They said the intruders forced entry through a window by removing an iron bar.
The Liberia National Police (LNP) confirmed the murder, attributing same to violent intrusion, and promised to launch a manhunt to find the alleged killers.
The killing of the LIS officer followed other high-profile mysterious deaths, including four auditors, Central Bank of Liberia official, Matthew Innis, and Liberia’s Peace Ambassador, Rev. Richard Tolbert, III, amongst others.
The Civil Society group said it is drawing attention to these killings and other suspected crimes such as the shady importation of weapons through the Freeport of Monrovia, to ensure that perpetrators are found and brought to justice.
The group emphasized that investigating and punishing these crimes would serve as a deterrence, especially since some of the people suspected to be linked to past heinous crimes appear to be finding comfort in the delay or lack of interest by state authorities to act, and are therefore spewing arrogance in the faces of grieving families.
On the killing of Charloe Musu, the CSO group alluded that the first investigation and legal trial proved the innocence of those initially accused, and they were duly set free by the Supreme Court, but the state must still do all in its power to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
ICSUL added that an investigation in Charloe’s case must seek answers to all critical questions that were largely ignored during the investigation and trial in the lower court, including scientific (forensic) findings which established that a male DNA was found on the late Charloe during forensic examination, an indication and/or confirmation that her killer was a male, as stated and testified to by her family members who were in the house on the night she was murdered.
The civil society group further stressed that this scientific evidence and other suspicious elements and circumstances on the investigation and court files, including telephone numbers and communications by people closed to some of those that were rumored to be linked to the crime, as well as expert testimonies delivered during the trial, must be considered in pursuing case.
On the arms and ammunition discovery at the Freeport of Monrovia in 2023, ICSUL is calling on President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to treat the matter the same way he’s treating the crack down on drugs, by ensuring a full-scale investigation and possible prosecution of anyone found culpable.
It can be recalled that former Monrovia City Mayor, Jefferson Koijee denied reports linking him to the weapons discovered at the Freeport, as fingers were being pointed at him for being behind the controversial and illegal arm shipments.
The sophisticated military-grade weapons, including rifles, pistols, and ammunition were found at the port during security inspections just months to the 2023 elections, as allegations of Koijee’s involvement filled the social and traditional media space.
Koijee denied any connection to the shipped weapons. He accused the Unity Party of using propaganda and social media to damage his reputation.
Security forces seized the large cache of arms of about 450 assorted military-grade rifles and ammunition in document-preserved boxes inside a container. The cache included assault rifles and long-range American-made M16s, AK-47s, M203 launchers, Omega 15 rifles, and Rock River LAR guns.
It was also reported that additional boxes of ammunition and hidden weapons were later recovered during subsequent police searches at related residential properties in and around Monrovia.
The CSO group also cited the shocking and controversial death of Madam Yusador Gaye, the first female Auditor General of Liberia, who passed away in July, 2021, at the ELWA Hospital in Paynesville, not too long after the GAC completed and conclude audit of the controversial US$25 Million pop-up exercise, with shocking findings of lack of accountability and transparency.
The public alarm that greeted her death was fueled by a string of suspicious auditor deaths in 2020, just a year earlier, amid local and international concerns and calls for accountability in the mysterious deaths of four public-sector auditors just within eight days.
They included, Emmanuel Barten Nyeswua, Director General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), Albert Peters, Gifty Lama, and George Fanbutu of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), all of whom were involved in active investigation of high-profile government financial accounts amid mounting public outcry over alleged misappropriation of public money.
Another mysterious death the civil society group is drawing attention to is that of Matthew Innis, Deputy Director of Micro Finance at the Central Bank of Liberia following his reported opposition to the method advanced by authorities of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to the Economic Management Team for the US$25 Million mop-up exercise.
Family sources and the public disputed the government’s account that Mr. Innis died after being hit by a vehicle in a hit-and-run situation at around 2:00AM on the 72nd -SKD Boulevard.
The Independent Civil Society Union also wants the death of Executive Protection Service (EPS) officer Melvin Early properly investigated.
Early died from multiple gunshot wounds following what was reported as a suicide by shooting himself three times in Tapita, Nimba County, while on duty during former President George Weah’s nationwide tour in February 2021.
The EPS stated that Early, an agent of 15 years in service, showed strange behavior and fled from a commander who was attempting to disarm him, and allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself. This account was laughably disputed by the public, family members and friends.
Agent Early’s widow, Ravinna Early, rejected the suicide account and alleged that her husband was murdered, claiming that authorities of the EPS and the Executive Mansion were staging a cover-up by withholding the death certificate and pressuring her to publicly state that he committed suicide.
The CSO group has, however, welcomed the current administration’s effort to probe the mysterious death of Emmanuel Barten Nyeswa, the former Director General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA). Barten’s case resurfaced under the Joseph Boakai administration as the police, several months ago, began investigating the circumstances surrounding the tragic incident.
Barten Nyeswa died during the IAA’s involvement in the much talked-about COVID-19 fund audit and other public financial dealings in the Weah administration, with initial government reports attributing his death to a fall from the balcony of his house on the 77nd-SKD Boulevard.
However, amid widespread doubts over the government’s account, a lady, Musu Lela Kerkula, who was with Mr. Nyeswa on that fateful night, publicly disputed the falling account, stating rather that he was murdered.
Following the incident, Lela fled Liberia to the United States for her safety. The Independent Civil Society Union said its call for accountability in these unresolved matters is to ensure that justice is served where it is due, and to also deter people from breaking the law at will, under the comfort of a system that is seemingly weak and embodying to corruption, injustice and violent crimes.
