By Benjamin Njoku
The mediator then was Guinean Deputy Force Commander, Lamin Mangasouba. But while the peace move was still on course, Johnson formed the habit of visiting the headquarters regularly, pretending to be friendly.
I didn’t like the way he was frequenting the headquarters and I summoned him one day and warned against his coming to the headquarters with his men fully armed to the teeth. I insisted that he must leave his arms at the HQ’s main gate before attempting to gain entrance into the premises.
However, he pretended to have heard me and then climbed upstairs to see the Force Commander in his office. As soon as he left, I climbed upstairs too to brief the Commander of what transpired between myself and Prince Johnson.
But rather than seeing reasons with me, the Commander disappointedly told me how Johnson did not like the way I was blunt to him. I replied by saying ‘of course, I didn’t expect him to like it but for our safety, he must comply with my order.’
To my surprise again, the Commander told me that he had countered the order. I felt very bitter and disappointed as I made him understand that he was making us vulnerable . Hardly had we finished discussing when we heard a siren advancing towards the headquarters.
And when I looked through the window, I saw series of assorted cars led by a Limousine, decorated with the Liberian flag and that of the Armed Forces of Liberia. I told the Commander that the August visitor must be President Samuel Doe and suggested that he remained in his office while I went downstairs to receive him.
There and then, I rushed downstairs to receive President Doe but the Commander would not listen and he surprisingly followed me downstairs to receive the President. Protocol demanded that I should be the one that would have ushered the visitor into the Commander’s office.
But this was not so in this case. The Commander decided to come down and receive the visitor by himself. At that point, there was nothing I could do, other than to join him in ushering the President and members of his cabinet into the Commander’s office.
The Cabinet members were later moved into the Deputy Commander’s office, while President Doe was kept in the Commander’s office. At the Commander’s office, the President berated the Commander, fuming that he desired to be paid a homage by the troops as the President of Liberia, no matter the situation. But as the Commander was trying to apologise to him, he heard another siren advancing towards the headquarters again.
And before he knew what was happening, it was Prince Johnson and his men who had returned to the headquarters. Sensing danger, I advised that the Commandant should remain with the President in his office while I went downstairs to confront Prince Johnson to leave the headquartres or remain outside the quarters with his armed boys.
But by the time I got downstairs, Prince Johnson had already gained access into the headquarters and was giving me option that I must tell Sgt. Doe to join the Ghanaian ship and leave Liberia immediately for peace to return to the country.
I cautioned him and insisted that it was not for him to tell us what to do with the President. I commanded him to leave the headquarters immediately with his troop. As he was attempting to go out, we started hearing continuous gunshots. That was Prince Johnson’s men killing the security operatives that came with Sgt. Doe.
What happened? One of the security guys asked to the hearing of Prince Johnson’s troops, “What are these rebels doing here?”
KILLING OF SAMUEL DOE
In response, one of Prince Johnson’s men challenged him and before we knew what was happening, he opened fire on them, killing all the security operatives. That was the fire that led to the capturing and killing of Samuel Doe. So, while the firing was going on, I commanded Johnson to leave the headquarters immediately.
But the firing was worsened. In the midst of the confusion, I went upstairs to see the Commandant. But lo, he was nowhere to be found. He had escaped to the ship.
Doe was left alone in his office. At that point, I told Doe, “Look, discretion is a better part of valour. Let me take you to the ship so that you remain there until this raging fire is quenched.” But he turned down my appeal and rather demanded that I should give him some troops to escort him back to the executive mansion.
But already, I was aware that an ambush had been laid for him. So if I had yielded to his request, they would have killed both Doe and the troops. While the commotion was going on, the Commandant had disappeared into thin air.
I looked for him to persuade Sgt Doe to listen to the voice of reason but he was nowhere to be found, and Doe wouldn’t listen.
As I returned to the office to lock up the door, one of Prince Johnson’s boys called Rambo traced me to the Commandant’s office where he spotted Sgt. Doe and shouted “He’s inside the office. He’s inside the office.”
The shout attracted Prince Johnson who returned to the Commandant’s office. But I couldn’t let him gain access to the office as I quickly shut the door and stood behind it and ordered Prince Johnson’s boy Rambo to leave the place.
There and then, he opened fire around me to scare me away but I stood my ground as I continued to command both Johnson and his boys to leave the place. At a point, something occurred to me. I started asking myself who I was protecting, whether it was Sgt. Doe who had shed a lot of blood and who in the early hours of that fateful day, slaughtered many Liberians? Whether he was worth dying for?
That was how I left him at the mercy of Prince Johnson and his men. Johnson went into the office and fired at his two legs. He advanced to the Deputy Commandant’s office and also killed all the members of Doe’s cabinet who came with him to the headquarters. Later, he dragged wounded Doe outside the place and began to jubilate that he had captured the President. But somehow, somebody accidentally touched the President’s limousine car and the siren went off.
Johnson Escaped [With Doe]
Afraid that the ECOMOG troops were coming to attack him, he immediately dragged Doe into his car and disappeared to his base.
After the incident, there were dead bodies on the ground and the Chief of Logistics then who was a Nigerian, Major-Gen.(rtd) Rufai, insisted that we must go and rescue the President from the stronghold of the rebels.
But in an operation of this nature, where troops were contributed by different countries, the Force Commander remained the only officer who could issue instructions to deploy troops. But I couldn’t find him.
And I was left with no option than to find out the whereabouts of the Commander in order to brief him and consequently obtain order from him to deploy troops to go and rescue Sgt. Doe from the hands of his captors.
Disappointedly, when I finally found him, he was coming out from the Ghanaian ship where he went to take cover. I saluted him and followed him to his office where I briefed him on what happened and asked for his permission to deploy troops to go and rescue Sgt. Doe. I told him it would be scandalous on our part to have allowed such massive killings to happen within the ECOMOG territory. But he was not interested in my opinion or listening to what I had to say.
Rather, he was concerned about taking photographs of the corpses that littered the place. He asked me to wait for him in his office. When he had finished taking the photographs, he returned to his office and out of fear, he nearly screamed when he sighted me in the office muttering, “You nearly scared me, you know”.
And I said to him “So sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to scare you but at this moment, we need a decision to go ahead and rescue Sgt. Doe from Johnson and his men’. He was not interested in what I had to say. Instead, he was busy gathering his personal effects and handing them over to his boys who were taking them to the Ghanaian warship in waiting.
The next instruction he gave to me was to summon a conference of Commanders. I thought he was going to give the instruction by himself but it was not to be. While the Commanders converged, he told them he was on his way to Sierra-Leone from where he would proceed to Gambia to see the Chairman of ECOWAS, who then was the President of Gambia, Dauda Jawara.
He told us that we had no business remaining in Liberia anymore and he handed down an instruction to me to tell anybody that asked of him anything I deemed like telling the person.
I couldn’t believe my ears. Before we knew it, he had entered the ship and left for Sierra-Leone. I had to summon the troops. I told them that I was not prepared to take this nonsense from Prince Johnson and his men.
I ordered that we should go and invade Johnson’s base but it was too late as we later learnt that Johnson had finally killed Sgt. Doe and deposited his corpse in one of the hospitals operated by a Nigerian doctor who was based in Liberia at that time.
That was how Sgt Doe was killed. At that point, as the man in charge, I gave out orders to clear Charles Taylor completely and banned Johnson from entering the headquarters from that day. As far as I was concerned then, Prince Johnson was a hostile enemy that must be checked. The deaths and occurrences are hazy in my mind right now but I think that was exactly how Sgt. Doe was killed by Johnson and his men.
Deal That Killed Doe
On reflection, one wondered how Prince Johnson got to know that Sgt. Doe was coming to the ECOMOG headquartres that fateful day. Immediately after he had seen and discussed with the Commander, General Quanioo, a deal must have been struck between them.
The two liaison officers we established as a channel of communication between President Doe and Prince Johnson, the one representing Johnson’s interest must have gone to inform him that Sgt. Doe was coming to the ECOMOG headquarters that fateful day.
And again, with Johnson’s visit to General Quanioo on that same day, I strongly believe that a deal must have been struck between the Force Commander and the rebel because later on, we discovered that two container loads of items were in the Ghanaian ship to be moved to Ghana. And that created another problem for us in Liberia.
Johnson’s Atrocities
The second incident was that when we arrived Liberia, he quickly established a refugees’ camp but not in the presence of the Commander. Prince Johnson would invade the camp and capture some beautiful women among whom he took away to his base.
The most annoying thing was that he, Prince Johnson, approached the unit commander, requesting us to release some arms for him to attack President Doe then. But I rejected his request. At that moment, the unit commander betrayed us by going to tell Prince Johnson that he had wanted to release some arms to him but Nigerians wouldn’t allow him to do so.
Ordinarily, the Ghanaian troop had enough arms. If the Commander had wanted to release some arms to the rebels, he could have instructed the Ghanaian troop to release them to Johnson. But he wanted to indict Nigerians.
That was why he came to us. The implication is that if you give a rebel your arms, he would later turn the arms against you.
The fact that the Commander told Johnson that it was the Nigerian troop that had refused to release their arms to him made Johnson ambush and capture the Nigerian soldiers and took them to his base. When I heard about his action, I was infuriated and had to drive down to his base where I pulled out my hand grenade and ordered Johnson to release my men or the two of us would die instantly.
Out of fear, Johnson ran to his house but I followed him closely, threatening to blow up the grenade before he started shouting out, “Release them, release them.” I did not only have him release Nigerian troops, I also recovered our four lorries he confiscated. That was how I got our troops captured by Prince Johnson released.
All this time, Gen. Quanioo had disappeared into thin air. I was the only officer who was spearheading and taking decisions on behalf of the operation until General Dogonyaro was appointed to succeed Gen. Quanioo.
After the appointment of Gen. Dogonyaro cum his assumption of office, we started reorganising ourselves to advance, having had more battalions dispatched to join in Monrovia from Nigeria. That was another un-forgetful incident during my career in the military. Peace operation is not an easy adventure.
You must have the confidence of all the troops that made up the enforcement operation before you can record any success, particularly in West-Africa where our neigbouring countries are often suspicious of their dealings with Nigerian citizens.
