-Ex-City Mayor of Monrovia Mvogo accuses PYJ; wants him to ask for forgiveness publicly
By Olando Testimony Zeongar
MONROVIA – As call heightens for the establishment of a court to prosecute crimes against humanity, war and economic crimes perpetrated against Liberia and Liberians, former Monrovia City Mayor Clara Doe-Mvogo, has accused former dreaded warlord, now Senator of Nimba County, Prince J. Johnson (PYJ), of killing her brother during Liberia’s more than a decade old brutal civil war.
On Christmas Eve in 1989, including PYJ, rebel forces, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) loyal to jailed former Liberian president Charles Taylor ruthlessly shot their way into Liberia, beginning a senseless civil war that claimed approximately 250,000 lives, displaced thousands others, and destroyed tons of private and public properties.
Johnson, initially a member of the NPFL would later break away and formed his Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), and go on to capture, torture, and butcher publicly to death, slain ex-president Samuel K. Doe.
PYJ is also infamously credited with the killing of several other Liberians, including fallen Liberian musical stars Robert Toe and Tecumsy Morris.
Howbeit, in an open letter, a copy of which Womenvoices newspaper is privy to, dated 28 May 2021 and addressed to PYJ, the former Mayor of the City of Monrovia, Madam Doe-Mvogo claims in 1990, the once dreaded rebel commander murdered her brother, who she identified as Michael K. Doe, Sr. by allegedly shooting the diseased in the back.
Madam Doe-Mvogo disclosed that she found out about the death of her brother after the late Pryde Davis, who she claimed helped to bury her deceased brother revealed it to her when he visited his family in Texas, the USA.
“Mr. Davis also said he and some of the employees at the hotel who my brother had befriended, buried my brother. They showed my mother where he was buried when she returned to Liberia. That is how my brother could have a funeral in the Catholic Church, “ she added.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am the sister of the late Michael K. Doe, Sr,” Madam Doe-Mvogo began her communication to PYJ, adding, “In 1990 you killed my brother by shooting him in the back in your office at the Hotel Africa, and instructing your soldiers to throw him out of the window.”
She disclosed that she has since forgiven the former leader of erstwhile INPFL, but informed PYJ that the many persons including her brother that he (PYJ) and his fighting men allegedly killed during the war were innocent individuals.
“I forgave you a long time ago after I returned to Liberia in 2006. My brother and many of those killed by you and your people were never involved in any of the conflicts in Liberia,” Madam Mvogo wrote, indicating her deceased brother was not the cause of the suffering of the people of Nimba, which according to her PYJ has used as a justification for some of the killings he allegedly committed, as well as those she accused him of ordering his soldiers to have killed.
She told PYJ that her reason for writing him her communication dated 28 May is to ask the former warlord turned politician to stop opposing the establishment of a war and economic crime court for Liberia.
“We need to close this chapter of Liberia, and hopefully bring those who were responsible for the killings, looting and suffering of the Liberian people to face the penalties for their crimes,” former City Mayor Doe-Mvogo wrote.
She narrated that her mother cried many days for her brother, from the day she heard he had died until she too died in 2004, indicating, “Other mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children and other relatives are still grieving for the loss of their loved ones. You know some of those you killed and had killed were not involved in the war. So even though some of us have forgiven you, it is time for you to ask for forgiveness openly and allow the law to take its course.”
