CDC Symbolically Comes Crumbling Down -Bulldozers Wreck HQ, Partisans Vow Ironclad Loyalty

MONROVIA – Whether it is dislodgement or eviction, the movement or change of headquarters by Liberian political parties, ruling parties included, from one location to another, is not uncommon in the country’s political history. What is new or strange is the dispatch of bulldozers into into a party’s compound and the flattening of important assets, including a vocational school meant for young people. Saturday morning, August 23, 2025 set the precedence, as the headquarters of the former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) was seen near and far being brought down into debris. As The Analyst reports, the weird incident has sparked mixed reactions from the public, and strong emotions amongst partisans, who have been essentially commonly saying, “Our party headquaters is broken, but our spirits and loyalties remain forever ironclad”.    

Saturday, August 23, 2025. Dawn. It was bleak and doom’s day for Liberia’s biggest opposition party, the Mighty Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) from their Congo Town headquarters. The iconic Sycamore Tree was scurrying under the blades of government-sanctioned bulldozers. The Masses’ Corners—stalls, bars and restaurants fell to the fiery grinds of caterpillars. Excavator’s iron punches riddled the walls to young people’s two-story vocational school to its foundation, before cruising crushingly on the Giant Stand of party’s sacred platform. The decades-old central office, the power of CDC’s authority, was not immune.     

From dawn to sun overhead, the two-decade official headquarters of arguably Liberia’s most masses-adored party, and six-year ruling established turned into littered heaps of debris, and a hunting ground for disadvantaged people.

The fervor of militancy, the echoes of usual battle cries and slogans, heard midnight before the incident faded into graveyard silence. The violent resistance feared from their partisans seemingly instantly turned into maturity.

Even before the Saturday, August 23, 2025 eviction and demotion exercise had commenced during the early morning hours at their Headquarters, the CDC party chairman Atty. Janga A. Kowo had cautioned the government through the Ministry of Justice about the seemingly unlawful nature of any forced eviction, noting that “any attempt to evict the CDC in the face of an appeal before the Supreme Court is not only a travesty of justice and a constitutional violation, but political repression and weaponization of the legal system”.

Chairman Janga Kowo had even called for a mass meeting of his partisans by 1pm Saturday, but the Liberian security forces were one step ahead of his game plan; or was it that whirlwind of whispers that descended on cadres from Political Leader Weah to prevent harms to dear partisans?

The Eviction and Demolition Exercise

It can be recalled, on the eve of the fateful eviction and demolition, partisans and sympathizers of the CDC were already converging in huge numbers at their party headquarter in Congo Town opposition the Cuttington University Graduate School, where some of the partisans were seen throwing objects at moving vehicles, thereby causing panic within the Congo Town belt.

The partisans in a disorganized fashion could be heard shouting threats against the few police officers that were deployed across the CDC Compound, quietly observing the melee.

Close to dawn, around Saturday 4am, a contingent of security forces including the Liberian National Police, the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency, the National Fire Service Agency, and some sheriffs entered the CDC compound and mounted a systematic search of the premises.

Meanwhile, Alvin Wesseh, an official of the youth wing, who and throngs of youth were still on the compound at night, alarmed that state security personnel on standby to enter the CDC compound were allegedly seen with ten boxes of illicit drugs they were to use to implicate partisans and use as pretext for violent entry and crackdown.

By 12 mid night, the security moved from unit by unit, using pickaxes to break down steel doors and throw out mattresses, furniture, ice boxes and other household items as journalists scurried to cover the scenario.

In one of the apartments which was alleged to belong to CDC Secretary General Jefferson Koijee, the security forces reported that they discovered two automatic rifles and some ammunition. One of the rifles had a scoping devise mounted on it, seemingly for sniper purposes, they claimed.

As preempted by Alvin Wesseh, the security forces alleged they also discovered some illegal substances in one of the rooms, which they displayed to journalists covering the eviction and demolition exercise.

By 7am Saturday morning, a giant-sized excavator lumbered into the CDC Compound and commenced demolition of all structures. The Munah E. Pelham Youngblood Vocational Centre, the main CDC office, adjoining apartments, and the ubiquitous Sycamore Tree were not spared.

Across the street, around the Old Road Sinkor intersection Cash Wash vicinity, CDCians were seen milling around and watching the scenario. One young man openly wept as some of his colleagues tried to console him.

Another youth, who openly threatened to engage in armed robbery activities because the government had demolished their party headquarter, was arrested by the police and whisked toward a parked LNP pickup.

Close to midday, with the eviction and demolition exercise completed, the excavator rolled quietly onto the load bed truck which drove away as onlookers stood somberly looking at the surreal scene.

Aftermath of a Quiet Eviction, Demolition Process

The eviction and demolition exercise on the 4.23 acre compound comes against an August 13 ruling by the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court against the CDC.

The ruling laid the basis for the court to effect the eviction and demolition exercise on behalf of the complainant and the Republic of Liberia, though the CDC claims an appeal was pending at the High Court.

In wake of the exercise, Liberians have been sharing mixed reactions.

Returning home from attending attend a historic economic and social development conference in Japan, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai who has been accused of orchestrating the CDC removal from the party headquarters, stated clearly that “the law is the law”.

“It is the government’s implementation of the law,” he said. “The police were ordered to do it, and they did it; if that demolition is removal of the people from premises according to the law.”

Nimba County District #7 Representative and Political Leader of the Citizens Movement for Change (CMC), Musa Hassan Bility seems not to be left out of the political fray.

According to Bility, a political party’s humiliation does not constitute a victory for democracy, because the only legitimate and proper way to defeat a political party is through the ballot box.

“What measures did the party take to prevent this?” he quipped. “Was it all about getting media attention the party has since lost due to its blatant inability to protect its most prized resource – its dignity?”

But beyond the CDC negative perceptions, party stalwarts were already positioned to convince their membership to gather and resist the court’s eviction order.

“We will remain here beyond 2029. You’re here. You will follow most of the stories. The CDC will protect herself,” remarked CDC stalwart Abdul Kanneh.

President Weah, in the aftermath of the eviction and demolition exercise, consoled his partners to remain calm.

“Allow the people to whatever they want with the building. Let us focus on building our new home, recalibrating, and getting prepared to take back power in 2029 with no exceptions,” he said.

Defeated Montserrado County District #8 lawmaker Acarous Gray for his part has offered his former District head office to be used temporarily as a temporary headquarter for Liberia’s biggest opposition party.

As for former President Weah’s Special Aide Sekou Kalasco Damaro, the momentum of party loyalty has just been amped by the eviction and demolition exercise.

“Yesterday, I started a Facebook Live conversation purely on the basis of talking to my partisans about the unfolding, with no intention of raising money. But little did I know that people were just waiting for the opportunity and channel to make contribution to their party. And surprisingly, we managed to raise $5,900. I have also been receiving a lot of messages in my inbox about people wanting to contribute and will be reaching out!!! Thanks so much to all of you for the support!” Kalasco stated in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Senator McGill Weighs In

Margibi County Senator Nathaniel McGill, a one-time Minister of State for Presidential Affairs in the erstwhile CDC regime, made a social media post, saying that the “breaking of buildings does not break the CDC”.

He added: “Our party is built on the foundation of people, not on structures or spaces. The CDC is a movement rooted in the hearts of the people. Today’s demolition of the CDC Headquarters was a wrong political move…2029 will be your answer. We are now stronger and more united than ever before.”

Cllr Fonati Koffa reacts

As if intending to go poetic, former Speaker of House of Representatives J. Fonati Koffa, borrowed a few lines from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, ‘Ulysses’. He dropped these Tennysonian lines: “Though much is taken, much abides; and though / We are not now that strength which in old days / Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; / One equal temper of heroic hearts, / Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will / To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”