Liberia: Why the LDEA Has Become a Liability for Boakai

MONROVIA — Every leadership scandal at Liberia’s drug agency in the past 31 months has involved a man appointed by President Joseph Boakai, and on Monday, he had to remove another, suspending his officer in charge over ethical concerns and assigning the agency to his own military adviser.

That is the political cost borne by the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency to this government, and it is now greater than anything the agency has achieved. Boakai appointed Maj. Gen. Daniel Dee Ziankahn Jr. as acting director general, with Precious Rue and Prince Mulbah serving as deputies, none of whom the Senate can confirm until it reconvenes later this year. In the same announcement, he suspended Fitzgerald Biago indefinitely from the Liberia National Police for what the Executive Mansion termed ethical transgressions, and ordered further investigation. A Justice Ministry report did not establish that Biago was involved in trafficking. Instead, it revealed something else, and the government has not disclosed what that is.

Biago is the fourth head of the LDEA to leave under this administration and the third to leave badly. Abraham Kromah was suspended in June 2024 after a fistfight at LDEA headquarters and was relieved in November. Christopher Peters resigned effective October 31, 2024, citing the agency’s need for training, staffing, and funds it lacked. Anthony Suoh was dismissed in August 2025 for administrative reasons that the Executive Mansion never explained. None of the four men who have held the post since January 2024 has completed a year in the position.

Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn

The issue isn’t that Liberia has a drug problem; rather, it’s that the government’s problems are self-inflicted and rooted in a single decision-maker. The president has the authority to appoint and remove officials, so every removal implies that the previous appointment was a mistake. Four such removals in 31 months suggest either a flawed vetting process or an agency that cannot be effectively led by anyone the Mansion appoints. Neither of these interpretations benefits the administration, and the government has not provided an alternative explanation.The opposition has already found the argument. Former Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor, whose government was accused of letting drugs into the country and who is rebuilding the National Patriotic Party for 2029, told reporters in Gbarnga this week that the drug crisis has overwhelmed the country and that the current government has gone quiet on it. Her defense of the previous administration is that it responded to the same accusation by building voluntary rehabilitation centers. Whatever the merits of that claim, it establishes the frame the ruling party will be running against, which is that drugs were an opposition talking point in 2023 and have become a governing record since.

Enforcement has suffered in ways that are harder to see and more difficult to fix. Peters reported seizing over US$4 million worth of narcotics in four months and argued that the problem lay with the institution, not the commander. That diagnosis has been addressed three times by changing the commander. An agency whose director general rotates roughly twice a year cannot sustain long investigations across administrations, keep trust with informants, or ask foreign partners to share intelligence with an office whose head might be under investigation before the case is charged. The impact of this falls on the government’s own interdiction figures, not its critics.