Africa-Press – Liberia. Monrovia- Prominent Liberian lawyer and human rights advocate Pearl Brown Bull has described the late mother of former Foreign Affairs Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayan, Ma Watta as a “victim,” using her funeral as a platform to raise serious concerns about due process, legal ethics, and the human cost of state actions in Liberia.
Standing before mourners, Cllr. Bull recounted a troubling sequence of events surrounding the arrest of Ma Watta’s son, Dee-Maxwell SaahKemayan, painting a picture of a mother overwhelmed by shock and grief in the face of what she suggested was an aggressive and insensitive state operation.
“Children of God, I stand here, because we are supposed to be two, me and Kabina Ja’neh. We are here with Ma Watta and we continue to be an advocate for her son and this nation,” she began. “The two of us are the terrestrial advocates and we have in mind to continue this advocacy in a place where Ma Wattawas born and where she died. We will continue to advocate for her son and also Ma Watta.”
Her voice heavy with emotion, Cllr. Bull narrated her firsthand experience on the day law enforcement officers, accompanied by court sheriffs, arrived at the residence of Ma Watta.
“I want to say thank you very much, because I feel so bad, because I was there when Ma Watta went off that day,” she said. “I went there when he called me and I saw all the police with guns and the sheriff from the court. I told them, what you’re doing here, please allow me to go in, and they had a Subpoena to search all over the place, under the bed, in the draw and everything.”
According to her, the situation took a dramatic turn when the elderly Ma Watta came face-to-face with her son during the operation.
“When the oldma look up and saw her son, she stop talking, she stopped talking, and they took him up,” Bull recounted, pausing as the gravity of the moment settled over the audience.
Cllr. Bull said she attempted to assert her role as legal counsel but was blocked from accessing her client, a move she strongly criticized as a violation of constitutional guarantees.
“They took him to the prison and put the prison clothes on him. They refused for me to go in,” she said. “A Constitutional Lawyer who says a person should be represented by a lawyer at every stage, and they kept me at the gate.”
Her account underscores what she believes to be a troubling disregard for due process and the rights of the accused, particularly the right to legal representation during critical stages of arrest and detention.
Using the solemn occasion, Cllr. Bull expanded her remarks beyond the personal tragedy, framing Ma Watta’s ordeal as symbolic of broader systemic failures. She maintained that the late matriarch did not merely suffer as a mother, but as a victim of a justice system that, in her view, failed to balance enforcement with humanity.
She then turned her attention to members of the legal profession, issuing a strong call for ethical responsibility and integrity in the administration of justice.
Cllr. Pearl Brown Bull escorts her client former Foreign Minister Amb. Maxwell Saah Kemayah to court.
“Lawyers must be fair and balanced and plead the law with honesty,” she emphasized, warning that the erosion of these principles threatens the very foundation of Liberia’s justice system.
Her comments come amid growing public scrutiny of how legal processes are conducted in high-profile and politically sensitive cases across the country.
In a shift from legal critique to moral reflection, Cllr. Bull invoked a message of reconciliation, urging Liberians, especially Christians, to abandon grudges and divisions.
“She meant to say to us, Liberian Christians, stop this grudge, it’s like a hot coal that you want someone to put on their head, but you can’t do that,” she said.
“We are all one, and you will be surprised that when we check here, we will be related to each other.”
She concluded her tribute by commending Ma Watta’s son for what she described as resilience and dignity amid adversity.
“Thank you very much, Amb. Kemayan, you didn’t make your mother ashamed. Thank you Ma Watta, advocate for us, so that there will be justice and there will be no bad things that we will see.”
Cllr. Bull’s remarks have since resonated beyond the funeral grounds, reigniting debate over the protection of civil liberties, the conduct of law enforcement, and the ethical obligations of legal practitioners in Liberia.
For many observers, her powerful testimony has not only immortalized Ma Watta as a grieving mother, but also elevated her story into a symbol of the urgent need for justice reform and accountability in the country.
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