By Danesius Marteh
Liberia Football Association (LFA) President Mustapha Raji evaded justice on Tuesday as four sheriffs from the Paynesville Magisterial Court attempted to arrest him on the orders of stipendiary magistrate William G. Saygah.
Saygah issued the arrest order for Raji for the alleged commission of the crimes of simple assault and disorderly conduct following a complaint by Jubilee Football Club President James Nimene on Monday.
James, a private prosecutor, appeared before the court on Monday, sworn upon oath and averred that on 24 January in the LFA conference room in the Swankamore community, Raji banged him on the chest after series of exchanges and forcibly pushed him from his back outside of the conference room and threatened to break his head without any color of right.
Raji was served with the writ, which was turned over to LFA legal manager Benedict Yarsiah with the hope of bringing the defendant to court on Monday.
But Saygah felt disrespected when neither Raji nor Cllr. Yarsiah showed-up in court up to sign-off time, prompting the sheriffs to go to the LFA on Tuesday.
The sheriffs waited for about 30 minutes outside of the gate and were allowed in the compound but Raji couldn’t be located.
Some employees confided in our reporter that Raji was hold-up in the 2022 Toyota Fortuner, which the LFA purchased for him at US$42,287 (insurance took the cost to US$45,000 in November 2022) as the sheriffs made their way to Raji’s office and the driver used the back way to escape with Raji.
What led to the melee?
James had gone to the LFA to follow-up on the transfers of Zah Krangar, Armah Moore, Ezekiel Koon, Otalis Sie, Jacob Sailee and Emmanuel Baidoo of FC Fassell and Christopher Jerbo of Sameria FC to Jubilee.
Their transfers had been pending, which raiseed concerns and suspicions, prompting James to go to the LFA to inquire.
Jubilee had understandably being in the bad books of the LFA since winning a landmark case bordering on the good governance, accountability and transparency at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Since an eight-count CAS arbitral award delivered by Atty. Herve Le Lay of France on 31 October 2025, which restored Jubilee to the first division for the 2025/2026 season, Jubilee played 14 games with 14 players during the first phase because the LFA created several bottlenecks in allowing Jubilee to duly registered players.
