Monrovia, Liberia – As the nation reels from the shocking indictment of former House Speaker J. Fonati Koffa and fourteen others in connection to the December 2024 Capitol arson attack, glaring questions have emerged surrounding the unexplained omission of Montserrado County District #6 Representative Prescilla Cooper, a known partisan of the ruling Unity Party.
Despite her alleged links to key figures named in the case and her involvement in the political tensions surrounding the Capitol incident, Rep. Cooper was not indicted, and both the Ministry of Justice and Criminal Court “A” have remained tight-lipped about the reasons for her exclusion.
The silence is fueling a growing chorus of accusations that the Boakai-led administration is selectively applying justice to shield political allies while pursuing aggressive legal action against opposition figures, particularly those linked to the former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
Cooper’s Alleged Ties to the Capitol Plot
Representative Prescilla Cooper was initially picked up for questioning in the immediate aftermath of the December 2024 Capitol arson incident. Unlike other suspects who were swiftly detained and charged, Cooper was released the same day after reportedly claiming a medical emergency. Her legal team reportedly submitted a doctor’s note citing health complications, which allowed her to avoid overnight detention. She later requested a separate legal process, arguing that being tried alongside opposition-linked defendants could jeopardize her safety and political standing.
Since then, her name has vanished from all court proceedings, and she is not among the 15 individuals indicted in the case. The government has offered no explanation for her exclusion, despite documented associations with several of the co-defendants and reported involvement in pre-arson strategy sessions. Her omission has fueled widespread concerns of selective justice, as critics point to her close ties to the ruling Unity Party as a likely reason for the apparent prosecutorial leniency.
The Charges and the Omission
The Grand Jury charged the 15 indicted individuals with a raft of felonies and first-degree misdemeanors, including:
- Criminal Attempt to Commit Murder
- Arson
- Criminal Mischief
- Criminal Conspiracy
- Criminal Facilitation
- Criminal Solicitation
- Reckless Burning or Exploding
- Recklessly Endangering Another Person
The indictment even cited recorded conversations and planning meetings involving both men and women from political and operational wings, making the absence of Cooper, a known key political strategist within the majority bloc, all the more striking.
Government Silent Amid Mounting Scrutiny
Neither the Ministry of Justice nor the office of the Solicitor General has issued any public statement explaining why Prescilla Cooper was neither investigated nor charged, despite her centrality to the Unity Party Alliance legislative caucus and her known proximity to key defendants.
A high-ranking judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Whistleblower Online that “pressure from the Executive Mansion” may have influenced the prosecutorial discretion in this matter. “We were prepared to go deeper, but it became a political football,” the source said.
Civil society groups, legal watchdogs, and members of the opposition have begun to question whether the administration is using the indictment as a tool to punish political opponents while shielding its own.
What This Means for the Case
The trial, set to commence in the August Term of Court, already promises to be one of the most high-stakes legal battles in recent memory. But without answers on Rep. Cooper’s omission, it may be difficult to dispel public perception that the case is being prosecuted not solely on the basis of evidence, but on political calculations.
Even legal experts sympathetic to the Unity Party have privately admitted that the unexplained omission threatens to erode trust in the fairness of the prosecution. “You cannot say you are seeking justice while clearly protecting your allies,” one professor at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law noted.
As the case unfolds under the watchful eye of Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie, all eyes will be on whether the defense teams raise the issue of bias in court and whether public pressure will force the government to provide clarity on why Rep. Prescilla Cooper remains untouched by what appears to be a far-reaching legal net.
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