By Hassan Osman Kargbo
Political violence is totally unacceptable in any peaceful democracy.
It is three months now since president Bio retained his position as president of the country. Ever since his “re-election”, there have been a lot of mixed feelings concerning the credibility of the June 24 polls.
President Bio’s second term is not only questioned by many, they have also been questioning the high inflation in the country. Due to the current level of inflation, which is at 56 per cent, and other abnormal situations, some people attempted to take to the streets of Freetown and other parts of the country to vent out their anger and concerns against the government on what they think is not going right in the country.
Despite several calls from the government, especially the Chief Minister who issued out a strong statement that all government workers must report to their various offices, threatening that any defaulter would face the full force of the law, yet the streets of Freetown were empty, as many civil servants did not show up for work on Monday, 11 September because of the planned protest.
Devoid of all these calls from government officials and other stakeholders, we saw some citizens on Monday, 11 September, 2023 coming out to demonstrate for what they believe is not going right in the country. The main reason according to some of the protesters at the east end of Freetown is the rise in the prices of goods and services in the country.
On Monday, almost all schools were closed though there were few teachers around such schools’ premises. There were no pupils in schools due to the faceless protest that was planned on social media by faceless people.
There were few vehicles that plied the streets, with many business people closing their shops and other places of business in the capital as a result of the said protest.
Because of the illegal demonstration police say was staged managed, they say two deaths were reported from stray bullets and that some arrests have been made to ascertain who is behind the faceless demonstration.
Also, the August 10 incident is still fresh in the minds of many Sierra Leoneans. This was the date when a lot of citizens lost their lives in anti-government protests across the country, as it was reported that six police officers and at least 21 civilians were killed during the August 10 insurrection.
All these occurrences in the country have led to many people questioning if the president is fully in charge of the daily happenings because this is not the first time certain unidentified individuals from social media have called on citizens to take to the streets while others stayed at home, which act normally resulted to chaos and mayhem for peaceful citizens in the country.
Moreover, it seems as if the government cannot do anything to stop inciting messages from social media and other platforms from reaching the citizenry. Meanwhile, the country’s Deputy Minister of Information, Yusuf Keketomi Sandi has said their government is working hard to repatriate a renowned social media activist based in Netherlands called ‘Adebayor’.
But, the question is when will he be repatriated as it has been a while now since the government has been saying they will see Adebayor face the court of law for inciting people to demonstrate which has resulted to many deaths and destruction of public and private property?
It is no longer a secret that ‘Adebayor’ is the alleged brains behind all these inciting messages on social media and the alleged master planner of the various demonstrations in the country, but it appears as if the government cannot do anything about him.
