Africa-Press – Liberia. Former Speaker, Fonati Koffa and three other lawmakers walked out of Monrovia Central Prison, Monday, after posting a collective property valuation bond amount of US$440,000. They had spent three-nights in jail.
There was no bond hearing, yesterday. Instead, Magistrate Ben Barco of the Monrovia City Court, used his personal discretion to grant the lawmakers bail and subsequent release. In attendance was Former President George Weah, standard bearer of the Coalition for Democratic Change, whose partisans had been detained. Weah had waited hours in Magistrate Barco’s office for their release, then left, a highly placed judicial source told the Daily Observer.
According to the source, Barco has scheduled today, Tuesday, to hear arguments regarding the criminal bond. The hearing will determine whether the defendants will remain released on bond and with what specific conditions.
A defense lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Weah had played a crucial role in orchestrating Koffa’s release, along with his co-accused. The former president reportedly intervened, after several insurance companies refused to grant the lawmaker’s bail. But even he had little success.
“Look, even President Weah, personally called some of his friends who own insurance companies […] to give us the bond, they refused,” the lawyer said. He added that, for the past four days, he tried to obtain a bond, but absolutely nothing had materialized.
“When I was contacted last Thursday by the police to accompany my clients to the headquarters for the investigation, I wasted no time contacting some of the insurance companies, almost all of them refused to accept my request.” He said some of the companies had claimed a new Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) requirement for bond issuance as a hindrance.
A CBL memorandum dated May 16, 2025, confirms this allegation. Signed by Executive Governor Henry F. Saamoi, it directs “All bonds issuing insurers to seek written clearance from the insurance department prior to issuing all court bonds in the Republic of Liberia.”
It further requires that insurers seeking to issue bonds should “Present their notarized certificate, audited financial statement to the insurance department for verification and assessment.”
At yesterday’s proceedings, there were special security measures in place to ensure “smooth functioning” of the court. This was futile. Scores of CDC supporters, who had waited outside the prison for hours, surrounded the lawmaker’s vehicle before it left for the party headquarters. Nonetheless, the crowd, although raucous, was nonviolent.
Koffa, together with Jacob Debee of Grand Gedeh County District 3, Dixon Seboe of Montserrado County District #16, and Abu Kamara of Montserrado County District #15, were charged on Friday, June 5, in connection to the arson attack on the Capitol Building, last December.
They were accused of being the master planners and financiers of the attack.
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