Claim: President Boakai decided to remove the CDC from the party headquarters.
Verdict: Misleading
Full Text: On Wednesday, August 13, 2025, Koijee appeared on the Freedom Hub Show and made bold claims about the CDC's headquarters eviction situation. He asserted that the party had never defaulted on rent payments for its Congo Town headquarters and characterized the ongoing eviction process as politically motivated rather than court-ordered.
According to Koijee, the current eviction proceedings stem not from judicial decisions but from direct orders influenced by President Joseph N. Boakai's administration.
The exact claim: "The CDC has never refused to pay rent. What you see now is not a court ruling, but a decision from President Boakai."
Verification: The Stage Media (TSM) fact-checking team conducted a comprehensive review of court records spanning from 2015 to 2025 to verify these claims and found Koijee's statement to be misleading.
The Legal Timeline
2015: Ebrima Varney Dempster, acting as administrator of the late William Bernard's estate, filed a lawsuit at the Civil Law Annex "A" on behalf of Martha Stubblefield-Bernard. The case was brought against multiple members of the Bernard family, including Archibald F. Bernard, Nancy Freddy Bernard Freeman, Murray Bernard, Vivian Bernard, William Bernard, and Leona P. Bernard.
The late Judge Johannes Zlahn ruled in favor of Dempster, confirming ownership of the land that houses the CDC headquarters and ordering the party to vacate the premises.
2016: Both the CDC and Archibald Bernard appealed to the full bench of the Supreme Court. However, the high court upheld the lower court's judgment.
Payment Records
Court records reveal that the CDC did make rental payments as a tenant:
February 2017: CDC paid US$20,000 covering the period from November 1, 2006, to October 31, 2017
Court records reveal that the CDC did make rental payments as a tenant:
February 2017: CDC paid US$20,000 covering the period from November 1, 2006, to October 31, 2017
- Follow-up payment: US$10,000 for six months (November 1, 2017 - April 30, 2018)
- March 29, 2024: CDC made a substantial payment of $360,000 through International Bank Limited for six years of possession, use, and occupancy (January 2018 - December 31, 2023).
Despite these payments, Dempster proceeded with eviction proceedings.
Recent Court Actions
March 2024: Judge Golda A. Bonah Elliot issued a writ of possession, directing sheriffs to evict the CDC from the 4.23 acres of land, citing the 2015 and 2016 judgments.
The CDC challenged this decision at the Supreme Court, but the high court upheld the eviction order. The court dismissed the CDC's Bill of Information, ruling that tenants cannot dispute their landlord's title after paying rent for years.
August 1, 2025: Judge George Smith denied the CDC's petition to compel the estate to sell the 4.23-acre property, determining there was no valid contract of sale.
August 13, 2025: Judge Smith requested Gregory O.W. Coleman, Inspector General of the Liberia National Police, to provide armed police support to court sheriffs and bailiffs for the CDC eviction.
Latest Supreme Court Ruling
August 15, 2025: In a significant development, the full bench of the Supreme Court overturned a lower court verdict that had awarded sole ownership of the 12.92-acre property to Danilette Tucker Bernard, widow of William Thomas Bernard.
The Supreme Court held that survivorship rights were extinguished upon death, and the land reverted to the estate for probate distribution. Justices identified deed inconsistencies and misapplication of legal principles by the Civil Law Court.
Importantly, the ruling reaffirmed prior eviction orders against the CDC while clarifying that the property belongs to the Bernard Estate, not the widow's sole ownership.
Conclusion: Based on extensive court record analysis, both lower courts and the Supreme Court have consistently ruled against the CDC in this decade-long land dispute. While records confirm that the CDC has made rental payments over the years, the eviction proceedings are firmly grounded in established court judgments dating back to 2015, not recent political directives.
Therefore, the claim is misleading. The eviction process results from long-standing judicial decisions, not President Boakai's political intervention.
