allAfrica.com: Liberia: Doe Was Never Captured (Page 1 of 1)

Former NTGL deputy defence minister, Joe Wylie, has dispelled rumors and perhaps insinuations that former President Samuel Kanyon Doe was apprehended during the 1985 Coup.

Mr. Wylie who is believed to be a key participant in the bungled 1985 coup d'etat in which countless numbers of Liberians lost their lives, said remained in partial control of the army during the episode that lasted from early dawn to midday.

Prior to his testimony before the ongoing Thematic and Institutional Hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), last Friday, it was widely rumored that the leader of the coup, the General Thomas G. Quinwonkpa had captured Doe, tied him and left him in care of another coup participant, Thomas Marquee, who allegedly released him after he was promised huge sum of money by Doe.

According to him, the plot to dethrone Doe was planned in neighboring Sierra Leone in conjunction with current presidential advisor, H. Boima Fahnbulleh, Archie Williams, the late Robert Philips, and many others.

Wylie said following his escape from the detention facilities of the National Security Agency (NSA), he was invited to Freetown, Sierra Leone by Dr. Fahnbulleh where he met with the late Thomas Quiwonkpa and briefed about the plan to dethrone the Doe government.

Wylie and other Liberians, particularly from the University of Liberia (UL) were detained by the Doe Government for allegedly plotting with the Soviet Embassy in Monrovia to subvert the Liberian government.

But he escaped jailed mysteriously while some of his colleagues were said to have been systematically eliminated by Doe's security forces.

In Freetown, according to him, he and his colleagues, about 32 other Liberians, were given military training by the late General Quiwonkpa to prepare them for the task of overthrowing the Doe regime.

During the training, he said, they received support from other Liberians in the Diaspora, particularly in United States with one Archie Williams serving as the liaison between the financiers and the executors.

He said Dr. Fahnbulleh provided the uniforms while Mr. Williams provided the communication gargets plus US$50,000 as initial inducement for the mission. But he did not say who provided the money.

According to plans, the invading forces were to enter Liberia on the night of September 12, 1985 via the Mano River Bridge access without resistance from AFL soldiers posted there, but that unfortunately, one their men was mistakably gunned down on the bridge.

He said the man was considered a threat by the AFL soldiers on guard. Thence, he noted, they encountered no resistance as if everyone was aware of the plans, or was in support of it.

Wylie said when they got to town, he and the late Cooper Teah, commanded the group that proceeded to Executive Mansion where they and loyal troops, comprised of the fearless Executive Mansion Guard, exchanged gunfire.

"Cooper Teah and I led the group to the Mansion. He was told to take care of the entrance toward the Temple of Justice while I took care of the entrance toward the University of Liberia," he said.

He narrated further that following few minutes of suppressive gunfire between their forces and those of the Executive Mansion, he and his group entered but that Cooper was nowhere to be found.

Wylie said he and his group succeeded in entering the Mansion grounds, but noted that when they went to the back, they encountered another badge of loyal soldiers who gunned down yet another of their men.

Without saying what happened after the gunning down of his man, Wyllie said he left the unit under his command and went to Bushrod Island to see his son.

According to him, it was when he got news that things had changed while he was on Bushrod Island that he commandeered a vehicle belonging to former defence minister Gray D. Allison and went straight to BTC to search for Quiwonkpa, but to no avail.

Commenting on what led to the failure of the coup, he said, "The soldiers began taking offices while the thing had not consolidated. Another thing that led to the failure of the coup was that the truck that was bringing our support arms and ammunition was fired at, out of fear, by Cooper Teah and the driver had to make U-turn."

Besides, he said, the coup failed because there was no proper planning, made worse by the lack of any fallback position. Wylie said the communication set they brought to town was not working, so there was no way he could communicate with Quiwonkpa.

This, he said, made it impossible for him to trace the whereabouts of the "strongman" up to his (Wyllie's) escape and Quiwonkpa's subsequent capture and murder by force loyal to Doe.

Wylie could not say how Quiwonkpa was captured or killed, but ruled out claims that he was killed by Edward Slanger.

"According to information I received later, Quiwonkpa was killed by group of junior officers, but he was not killed by Slanger," said Wyllie, currently a member of the Council of Wiseman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

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