MONROVIA – A supporter of the war on drugs has turned on its methods. Cllr. Cephus says he backs the hunt for drug barons without reservation. But the way former Vice President Taylor was arrested echoed the military tribunals of the 1980s. The paper notes his sharpest question: why seek a confession from someone already branded a kingpin? He wants an apology for treatment, not for allegations.
Legal counselor Cllr. Sayma Syrenius Cephus has called on President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to publicly apologize to former Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor, not over the drug allegations she faces, but over what he described as the degrading manner of her arrest. He framed the appeal as a matter of due process and national dignity rather than a defense of the underlying charges.
In a commentary addressed to the President, Cephus recalled first meeting Boakai during the trial of Alexander Benedict Cummings, when the then former vice president told him the nation needed well-meaning Liberians who would look a president in the eyes and say an action is wrong, valuing truth over friendship. He said that counsel had stayed with him and had returned to him in the present moment.
Process Matters As Much
Cephus stated plainly that he fully supports the President’s war on drugs, saying there should be no mountain too high, no valley too low, and no ocean too wide to cross in order to arrest and prosecute drug barons. If anyone, including former officials, is found to be part of a drug network, he added, the full weight of the law should apply as a deterrent to others.
But process matters as much as outcome, he cautioned. Cephus questioned whether it was necessary to arrest a former First Lady, former Senator, and former constitutional Vice President in a manner that appeared degrading, while what is alleged against her remains an allegation to be tested in court.
Echoes Of The PRC
Drawing a historical parallel, Cephus argued that the way Taylor was arrested resembled how the People’s Redemption Council operated in the 1980s, when former officials were treated as guilty before a Special Military Tribunal. He also asked why a government claiming overwhelming evidence had filed a bill of information to admit her to bail, and whether the state was acting as both prosecution and defense in the same case.
He further questioned whether Taylor was a flight risk and whether she was invited for questioning before a publicized arrest. Cephus took particular aim at the public relations strategy that followed, in which government apologists urged her to confess because the evidence was overwhelming, asking what confession was being sought after the state had already announced to the world that she was a drug kingpin.
An Apology For Treatment
Cephus likened the approach to catching a man, beating him, calling him a rogue, and then demanding that he confess to being one, describing it as public humiliation rather than justice and a serious misstep in the ARREST Agenda. He noted that the Kpelle people are known for being non-violent, and said a Kpelle woman and former Vice President deserved to be treated with the dignity the law and the culture demand, even while facing allegations.
The counselor stressed that he was not seeking an apology for the allegations linking Taylor to drugs, saying the court should determine that and the chips should fall where they may. Invoking Boakai’s own words about valuing truth over friendship, Cephus concluded that the President owes Jewel Howard Taylor a public apology for the manner of her treatment, and said he meant it.