Violence behavioural attitude and culture of supporters and senior members of the incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) militant tendencies against their political opponents everywhere in the country.
Since April 2018 to date opposition supporters and members have continue to be subjected to intimidation from senior government workers including ministers, Members of Parliament including every member of the ruling party exert their muscles against their opponents and vulnerable people in communities across the country.
Recent among them are threat remarks of a young man addressing SLPP supporters at the party headquarters on Wallace Johnson Street in Freetown past Saturday 9th May, where the said youth leaders said for and on behalf of the SLPP grassroots steering committee, who threatened ; ‘we are ready to stand against the APC forcefully and vehemently.’
He made the remark after president Julius Maada Bio’s May 8th 2020 statement to the nation, in which he came down heavily on recent spate of violence in Lunsar, central prison in Freetown and in Tombo.
The SLPP grassroots leader’s harsh comment was followed by the Resident Minister North, Abu-Abu Abdulai Koroma whiles addressing youths and security personnel in Makeni where he is said to have misrepresented the president and the position of the government.
The young man’s statement was never a surprise to those who have been following the trend of violent attacks on main opposition All People’s Congress APC party members and supporters most times at the national secretariat and their various homes from Freetown right across the country as it was strongly stressed by the suspended Minister Koroma and party supporters at the SLPP secretariat.
The suspension Abu Abu Abdulai Koroma came in the wake of a leaked secrete video of his meeting during which he cautioned against young people against the ideas of being used by politicians to cause violent saying.
“We will, shoot to kill if death is what you prefer and disable you so that you can sit at home”. Koroma said “any young man and woman who misbehave we will break his/her legs and go after your parents”, he said.
A press release issued on May 10th 2020 from the Office of the President, reports that ‘the president maintains his stated unwavering commitment to addressing lawlessness and incitement to violence against the state only within the constitution and laws of the Republic of Sierra Leone’.
The actions and remarks by former Koroma and the SLPP grassroots leader are not new nor surprising at all as president prior to his elections as was captured in a video telling his supporters and members at a dinner that “if he as a leader has continues to be calm does not mean that his people should be as well calm”, which is why the reactions to his last week’s statement by most of his supporter and party members have not reached the public with shock.
Like following the footsteps of their leader, president Bio in his last week speech said; “my government will hit hard and continue to hit harder”.
So what is wrong if the president’s SLPP supporters and Ministers put into action a declaration by president Bio, when they have learned the arts from top cascading it downwards?
Recently whiles making statements on what is being described as “riot” at the Correctional Centre on Pademba Road, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs said; “the presidential guards will take on a whole national army”, but was not punish for such remarks.
It could be recalled that Abu-Abu Abdulai Koroma is not the first minister in the president Bio led SLPP administration that has manifested misconducted, as Transport and Aviation Minister Kabineh Kallon last year led gangs to polling stations and violently interrupted a rerun election in Constituency 110 in the Western Rural District, but was never cautioned nor suspended by president Bio.
However, cynics say president should have ordered the arrest and detention of his former regional minister like the government keep placing the main opposition APC members behind bars, had he meant business to set a sound precedent.
In recent past by-elections, the former Resident Minister Abu-Abu A. Koroma was alleged to had been mobilizing militants elsewhere at Calaba Town and Upper Allen in the far east of Freetown who caused havocs at Tonko Limba, Falaba and many constituencies in the north where rerun elections were held.
