Monrovia — Dr. Richard V. Tolbert has announced plans to relocate the mass grave on Center Street, Monrovia, Liberia, where former President Dr. William R. Tolbert Jr., 13 government officials, and others who died in the 1980 coup were buried.

"After 44 years, we have found a place to relocate the remains of former President Dr. William R. Tolbert Jr., his 13 government officials, and all those who died with them in the 1980 coup. They were unceremoniously dumped in a common mass grave," said Dr. Tolbert.

"We want to thank the Liberia Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention and the board of the Liberia Baptist Seminary for granting us a place to relocate the remains," he added.

Dr. Richard V. Tolbert also stated that they, the April 22 Group which comprise families of the Late President Tolbert and the officials of his government who were killed, have already begun planning and working to make their plans a reality by April 22, 2025.

Speaking during the Remembrance Day program from April 22, 1980, to April 22, 2024, Dr. Tolbert called on all well-meaning Liberians, Baptists around the world, and members of ECOWAS, the Mano River Union, and the African Union to help them achieve their goal.

"Dr. William R. Tolbert was not only the President of Liberia but also the President of the Baptist World Alliance. He was a founding member of ECOWAS and the Mano River Union and a past chairman of the Organization of African Unity, now known as the African Union," Dr. Tolbert remarked.

"Every year on April 22, we gather at the mass grave to honor the memories of our fathers and 13 mostly elderly senior government officials, including my father, the late Senator Frank E. Tolbert, who were brutally executed in cold blood just a few yards from South Beach behind the Barclay Training Center Military Barracks," he continued.

"But we are not here to mourn in bitterness; rather, we are here to remember them with gratitude. In the immortal words of the poet Laurence Binyon," he stated.