By Kolawole Ojebisi
Former Liberian warlord Prince Johnson, has died at the age of 72.
Johnson, who was a prominent player in the civil wars that ravaged Liberia for almost 24 years (1989 –2003), is said to have breathed his last on Thursday.
“It is true that he died this morning,” family member Moses Ziah told Reuters on Thursday. Family spokesperson Wilfred Bangura also confirmed that Johnson, who suffered from high blood pressure, had died earlier in the day.
“Senator Johnson was the longest-serving senator,” said Siaffa Jallah, deputy director of press at the Senate.
He oversaw the brutal murder of former president Samuel Doe in 1990 before transforming himself into a politician of note who served as a Senator in Liberia.
With enormous power and clout at his disposal, Johnson became a political king maker in the West African country.
He threw his support behind former president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in 2011, then endorsed George Weah in the run-off against Sirleaf’s ruling party successor Joseph Boakai in 2017.
Johnson’s name first travelled beyond the borders of his country in 1990 when a now infamous video showing his lieutenants and henchmen executing Samuel Doe became a staple of world news and earned him global notoriety.
In the gory video, Johnson was captured gleefully holding cans of Budweiser and looking on as his fighters sliced Doe’s ear off with a knife before executing him.
That singular act of brutality plunged Liberia into two civil wars which killed some 250,000 people and ravaged the economy.
Johnson subsequently said he regretted the murder and sought reconciliation with Doe’s family
He was also a staunch opponent of the creation of a tribunal that would try civil war-related crimes.
While Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission named him among those recommended for prosecution for war crimes, saying his group had committed rapes and killings, Johnson never faced trial
Prince Johnson, who hailed from the northern region of Nimba, later became a preacher in an evangelical church where he enjoyed wide popularity.
