CALDWELL – Standing at the site where her father was brutally murdered 34 years ago, Celue Yeatta Doe-Addo, daughter of slain Liberian President Samuel Kanyon Doe, delivered a haunting yet hopeful plea for national forgiveness and reconciliation.
“Let us forgive and reconcile so the curse on this country can end,” she said, her voice quivering with emotion. “I see the place where my father was murdered, tortured, assassinated, mutilated, and set ablaze.”
The poignant appeal came during a military memorial organized by veterans of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) in Caldwell, Montserrado County—where President Doe met his horrific end on September 9, 1990.
Doe-Addo, who had been away from Liberia for decades, returned with a message aimed at healing old wounds that have long fueled national division. Her father, once a Master Sergeant, seized power in a 1980 coup before being captured and killed by rebel forces loyal to Prince Johnson at the height of the civil war.
His death—gruesomely filmed and broadcast worldwide—left an indelible scar on Liberia’s collective psyche and inflamed ethnic and political tensions, especially between Grand Gedeh, Doe’s home county, and rival factions.
On Saturday, April 5, at the symbolic site of his demise, Doe-Addo paid tribute to the man she called “daddy” and acknowledged the suffering endured by the country since.
She extended heartfelt gratitude to AFL veterans for standing by her family through years of national turbulence, and emotionally recognized a soldier only identified as “Mr. Anderson,” believed to have survived the capture alongside President Doe.
“You obeyed your Commander-in-Chief when he told you to save yourself,” she said. “You were not persuaded or bribed—it was out of love and loyalty. Because of you, I know what happened to my father.”
Doe-Addo also commended President Joseph Boakai and his administration for initiating steps toward giving her father a state burial—a long-standing demand from Doe’s supporters.
“Under this administration, we as Liberians will see our beloved presidents get their due diligence and rightful burial,” she declared, signaling what many see as a broader move toward addressing painful chapters of Liberia’s history.
But the message of unity was shadowed by fresh divisions within the Doe family. Former First Lady Nancy Doe and several of her children were conspicuously absent. In a recent statement, Madam Doe accused Grand Gedeh Senator Zoe Emmanuel Pennue of impersonating the family and attempting to orchestrate a state reburial without their consent.
“I and my children were never contacted,” the former First Lady said. “The government should be careful not to fall into the hands of people trying to exploit Samuel Doe’s memory.”
Despite the controversy, Doe-Addo appealed for healing—not only between political and ethnic factions, but within her own family.
“To my people of Grand Gedeh, Nimba, and across this beautiful country, the past is the past,” she urged. “Let us reconcile and begin again. The spirit of this country is wounded, and we all have a part to play in healing it.”
The solemn occasion concluded with prayers and military honors. As the old AFL anthem echoed through the crowd, some veterans wept openly. Others knelt at the symbolic site, laying wreaths in memory of a leader whose violent death remains one of the darkest chapters in Liberia’s troubled past.
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