Liberia: “I Regret My Actions”

Alex Williams, a former Deputy Director at the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), has issued a public apology to Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee, retracting the unsubstantiated allegations he recently made against him.

Williams, who is currently residing in the United States, had previously accused Koijee of orchestrating a plot to have him killed after he exposed alleged fraud at LISGIS.  

The allegation came in a series of secret recordings, which William had with Thomas Garwo, the Director of the Monrovia City Police.

‘I regret the conversation I had with Thomas Garwo regarding  Mayor Koijee because when I left Liberia, I promised Koijee never to discuss him,” Williams wrote in a Facebook post. “Whether he wronged me or not, I don't want to forget the many good things he did for me.”

“Koijee is one of the major reasons I am who I am today, and so I want to publicly apologize to him. My father is dead, but I see Koijee more like a father to me. You all may not understand, but I am convinced that I should have never discussed anything about him, whether it was factual or not.”

Koijee has constantly denied these allegations and stated that Williams was seeking political asylum in the United States at his expense.

Williams's confession comes barely two weeks after Jestina Taylor, who in 2019 claimed to have been abducted, dragged, raped, and left on the Robertsfield Highway, disclosed her involvement in a conspiracy orchestrated by talk-show host Henry Costa and Benoni Urey against Koijee at the time.

Taylor revealed that she was instructed by her former political leader, Benoni W. Urey of the All-Liberian Party, to fabricate allegations regarding the CDC government's importation of firearms in 2019 and their transportation to a farm in Gbarnga. 

Additionally, she accused Koijee of being the mastermind behind mysterious killings in Liberia.

“All the statements I made in 2019 at the headquarters of the National Election Commission, implicating Koijee in human rights violations and alleging that the CDC government smuggled firearms into the country and stored them on a farm in Gbarnga, were orchestrated by Benoni Urey. He promised to protect me after making these wide-ranging allegations against the government, but he failed to do so,” Taylor disclosed.

The revelation from Williams and Taylor comes a few months after U.S. Ambassador Michael McCarthy expressed his concerns in March about Liberians in the U.S. making unsubstantiated and derogatory statements that undermine the democratic process in Liberia.

“Today, I am ashamed to tell you that the most irresponsible controversies to emerge in Liberia’s media over the past month have originated from the United States,” McCarthy said.  “While responsible critical observations from the Liberian diaspora can be healthy, some cowardly media personalities and political figures have intentionally disseminated rumors or misinformation into Liberia’s political environment from the safety of their studios and offices in the U.S.”