Thousands of residents of Say-Town, a suburb of Monrovia, are now homeless following a court-ordered eviction linked to a long-running land dispute between Victoria Johnson Maxwell and Kwii S. Tarniah.
On Saturday, January 31, 2026, residents of the Say-Town community awoke to an eviction notice dated January 8, 2026, issued by Civil Law Court Circuit Judge Boima Kontoe.
The order instructed the sheriff to "oust, evict, and eject" occupants from the disputed land and place Victoria Johnson Maxwell in possession of the property.
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The Affected residents, both renters and landowners, told this publication they received no prior notice of the eviction. Several claimed they purchased their properties from members of the Johnson family.
According to residents, they woke up to find sheriffs instructing them to remove their belongings to allow heavy machinery ( two yellow machines) to demolish their homes.
"Only God will pay them," one resident told this publication. "It's like they informed the landlord, but nobody told us what was going to happen. As you can see, many of us are in tears, wondering where we will go."
Several of them were seen crying as demolition continued. Others said they had recently paid rent and had nowhere else to relocate. During the eviction, some who attempted to resist the demolition process were allegedly beaten by police and sheriffs and taken to a nearby police station.
Another resident, who claimed to have purchased land during the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration, described the eviction process as brutal. He said sheriffs went from door to door, and in cases where occupants were absent, they forcibly opened doors and removed personal belongings. "This is so bad," he said.
Eyewitnesses noted that this is not the first eviction in the area. In 2023, portions of the property were cleared, and a meeting was reportedly held with the party said to have won the court case.
This publication contacted Steve Kafia, caretaker and overseer of the property, whom residents identified as the individual responsible for managing the land. In a phone interview, Kafia denied receiving any eviction notice and expressed shock that the Civil Law Court would order an eviction when, according to him, his side had won the case.
Minutes after the call, Kafia arrived at the site with court documents in hand, attempting to stop the eviction process, but his Efforts were unsuccessful, as the sheriff leading the operation said the process could only be stopped by an order from the court's central office.
Calls placed to the central office revealed that the judge who issued the eviction order was reportedly out of the country, and the demolition therefore continued.
In a separate interview, Kafia strongly criticized the judiciary, describing the eviction as evidence of corruption.
"When people say the judiciary is corrupt, this is the evidence," Kafia said. "How can we win a case and the court order an eviction in favor of someone who lost?"
He further questioned the legality of the process, noting the absence of surveyors at the site. "The right talk about having a surveyor on the ground, do you see any surveyors on the ground? No."
However, Kafia explained that the original case involved Jesse Pyne representing Victoria Johnson Maxwell as plaintiff, with Thomas Wesley Philip as defendant. He said the Civil Law Court ruled in 2019 in favor of the Johnson family, declaring them the rightful owners of the property.
According to Kafia, Pyne later died, but the legal dispute continued for more than two decades. He said the Supreme Court issued a ruling on December 19, 2023, affirming the Johnson family's ownership and condemning actions taken against them as illegal.
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"The Supreme Court ordered that the Johnson family be placed in complete possession of the property," Kafia said. "So for the Civil Law Court to now order an eviction on behalf of the defendant who lost the case is deeply troubling."
He alleged that the court order being used by the sheriff could not legally justify the eviction and accused the court of abusing the law.
Kafia also criticized the judge who ordered the eviction, noting that just because a judge is corrupt, under no condition will someone win a case and later see an eviction that favors the person who lost, affecting residents who, he said, were not parties to the dispute.
He disclosed that he intends to file a bill of information at the Civil Law Court on Monday, seeking legal redress. However, he acknowledged that the damage had already been done.
"Thousands of people are now homeless," he said, adding that while he plans to assist tenants who recently paid rent, his immediate priority is restoring the property to its lawful owner.
