A demand that the police chief step aside has sharpened the central dilemma of Liberia’s cocaine inquiry. The Liberian People’s Party argues that no police force can credibly investigate its own top commander. Its call rests on the Inspector General’s own words about senior officials’ awareness of the operation. That statement, the party says, turns him from investigator into potential witness. The intervention presses President Joseph Boakai to choose openly between institutional loyalty and public confidence. It reframes the entire crisis as a question of structural integrity rather than individual criminal guilt. By invoking an earlier cocaine seizure, the party ties today’s scandal to older, unanswered questions about command responsibility, as THE ANALYST reports.
The Liberian People’s Party (LPP) has called on President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to require Inspector General of Police Gregory O.W. Coleman to recuse himself from all investigations into Liberia’s cocaine crisis and to establish an independent commission of inquiry. In a statement signed by its national chairman, Comrade J. Yanqui Zaza, the party said the demand was not an allegation of guilt against Coleman but a call for institutional integrity and public confidence in the rule of law.
The party said the scale of the crisis had moved the matter beyond street-level criminality into a national-security emergency involving institutions responsible for protecting the state. It noted that several officials and senior law-enforcement officers had been dismissed, suspended, questioned or prosecuted in connection with narcotics-related matters.
A National-Security Crisis
The LPP said Liberian authorities seized approximately 3,971 kilograms of cocaine in July 2026, reportedly valued at about US$317 million (L$57.81 billion), which it described as the largest cocaine seizure publicly recorded in the country. It said the involvement of senior security officials gave the public a legitimate right to know the source of the failure.
According to the party, the public deserves to know whether the problem stemmed from individual misconduct, institutional failure, compromised intelligence, command failure or political interference. It said the answers could not be left to speculation.
Coleman’s Statement Requires Answers
The party said Coleman had reportedly stated publicly that senior government officials were aware of, connected to or involved in the cocaine operation. If accurately reported, the LPP said, that was an extraordinary statement from the head of the national police.
It said the statement raised fundamental questions about who the officials were, what they knew, when they knew it and what evidence supported the claim. The party said Liberians could not be expected to accept such a serious allegation about unnamed senior officials without a transparent explanation of what followed.
Coleman Now A Witness
The LPP argued that by publicly asserting knowledge of senior government involvement, Coleman had potentially made himself a material witness to matters requiring investigation. It said an independent inquiry should determine what information he received, when and from whom, and what action he took.
The party said those questions could not credibly be answered through an investigation controlled by the same official whose knowledge and conduct might need to be examined. It said Coleman could not simultaneously serve as a potential witness, a subject of scrutiny and the commander of the investigators.
Recusal Not An Admission
The party stressed that recusal was neither punishment nor an admission of wrongdoing but a safeguard for the integrity of the investigation. It said the same standard must apply to everyone regardless of rank, political affiliation or institutional position.
The LPP also cited historical reports involving a 2022 cocaine seizure of about 520 kilograms and the subsequent placement or promotion of officers who later became subjects of scrutiny. It said such matters did not establish criminal guilt but were relevant to questions of leadership judgment and command responsibility.
The Party’s Demands
The LPP said it wanted Coleman to recuse himself from all operational, supervisory, evidentiary and public-communication responsibilities connected to the investigations pending an independent inquiry. It called for a commission of inquiry with authority to summon witnesses, obtain records, preserve evidence and refer suspected crimes for prosecution.
The party said Coleman should provide the commission, under oath, with the information underlying his public statement, including the identities of the officials to whom he referred. It also called for scrutiny of any attempt to obstruct, delay or conceal information concerning the investigations.
The LPP further demanded a review of the recruitment, promotion and supervision of officers implicated or questioned in the cases. It called for interim and final reports recommending prosecution, dismissal, disciplinary action or exoneration based strictly on the evidence, and for the protection of whistleblowers, investigators, journalists and witnesses from retaliation.
Accountability, Not Public Relations
The LPP said Liberia could not defeat a sophisticated international cocaine network through press conferences, diplomatic meetings or selective dismissals. It said the evidence must be followed wherever it led, from couriers and intermediaries to financiers, facilitators and senior officials.
The party said Coleman’s statement had created a public responsibility that could not be resolved through silence. Either senior officials were aware of the operation and must be investigated, it said, or there was insufficient basis for such a serious public statement, in which case the public deserved an explanation.
The statement was signed by LPP National Chairman J. Yanqui Zaza. Coleman and the government had not responded publicly to the party’s demands at the time of this report.