Citizens and other stakeholders in our local politics have intimated FORUM NEWS-SL that President Julius Maada Bio and his Inspector General of Police, William Fayia Sellu, have turned Freetown into a police state. They alleged that the police chief is doing all in his power to please his boss “as there is the rumour that IG William Fayia Sellu is on his way out as IG of the Police”.

According to James Gaye (not his real name) at PZ in the Central Business District of Freetown over the weekend, the street trader defined a police state as a country wherein the activities of the people are strictly controlled by the government with the help of a police force.

Gaye said the people of Sierra Leone were ushered into a police state under President Bio but that because of our national politics that he described as “toxic” we failed to see that it could be replicated in Freetown, widely considered the bastion and citadel of knowledge in Sierra Leone.

“You have to understand that the police state started with the unprecedented storming of the supreme foundation of democracy, the Well of Parliament under the former IGP Ambrose Michael Sovula. Under his watch the government of Sierra Leone also used the police to prevent and kill citizens in Lunsar, Makeni, Mile 91, Tombo, at Pademba Road prison out to protest government action or plan. The Pademba Road killings we believe were orchestrated plans to eliminate Alfred Paolo Conteh after the state caused an embarrassment with the charges they brought against him for treason,” he alleged.

In the midst of the small crowd that had gathered at PZ, Gaye said whenever the public wanted to protest some government plans or actions and for which they would call for street protests, the state would use the security forces under its control to prevent the people from voicing their opinions against government or their plans and actions, which he said has left the nation in a police state.

“It is our rights to protest, to freely associate with anyone or group and to choose who will represent us at party and governance level. We should not be required to seek permission from the police to protest against the head of police’s boss and his government; they will never agree. But we see our people in Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States protesting in those countries, a right that we as a democratic society regularly deny our citizens. Since 2018 the democratic space has shrunk in Sierra Leone as any time we have the opportunity to state our displeasure with government, it is at the very place our rights even our lives and properties are put under severe threats, as if there is no place for protests in our almighty 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone. Instead of being the people’s protector, the police have been used to prevent them from enjoying their rights and privileges as citizens in a democratic state.”

The civil society activist that accompanied FORUM NEWS-SL as we sounded the public’s take on our current situation reminded us that IGP William Fayia Sellu continued where his predecessor Sovula left off when he was replaced by the President.

“If things were going to change under William Fayia Sellu, it would have been very clear from his first serious test as IGP. The IGP’s first public action to show that he is here to do government’s bidding was what happened on 10^th August 2022. The nationwide protest action that was heard all around the world for the deaths of civilians and police officers and the destruction of police stations and posts across the country was the IG’s first opportunity to change the police’s image in the eyes of the public. But just as expected Sellu used this opportunity to remind his boss that he will continue this state sponsored legacy against the very citizens it is supposed to serve and protect. And with his present action across the CBD, we can see that the police state has already been ushered in Freetown proper.”

Making an example of Freetown being a police state, a Guinean trader clarified that “what is presently happening here at Abacha and across Freetown with people’s business stalls destroyed and police firing teargas demanding that street traders vacate certain areas in the CBD” are the showings of a police state.

“Why is government using the police to clear traders from the streets and for what? Remember that when the rumour was going around that there will be a Black Monday protest, the police in a knee jerk reaction after curfew was announced descended on Abacha Street with truckloads of young men while people were asleep and destroyed the traders’ stalls because it was believed that the protest action was being fuelled by the main opposition All People’s Congress – APC party’s street traders.”

She reminded that the Sierra Leone Police force has been relied upon by successive heads of state in Sierra Leone to act as a buffer between government and the people. But instead of being on the side of the people the police regularly fail in this their mandate by allowing the president to influence how the head of police behaves as the president is the chief’s boss and payer.

“Now imagine how much of a police state Freetown and Sierra Leone have become. If we were not so afraid of the police, there should be daily street protests in Freetown against how President Bio has claimed to have won the presidential elections. But because we are afraid of the police, the week before and subsequent weeks after the elections were like national holidays with a daily heavily armed police presence across the city. Why? Because the police are being used to prevent the people from protesting; we have been cowed or intimidated not to protest,” the civic activist observed.

Meanwhile, some members of the crowd pointed out that President Bio has been using the police to control how and when people travel and even how they express their political opinions using brute police force.

“For the longest time we had roadblocks or checkpoints all across the CBD where we see heavily armed state security personnel. This happened for days and nights before and immediately after the elections. Now the government is using the police to force the people from Abacha and other streets across the city without presenting the people alternative solutions. So we see that people’s livelihoods are being affected without any plan by government to assuage them. But there is the rumour that William Fayia Sellu may not occupy his position for long. Maybe this clearing the CBD of traders was the police chief’s idea of impressing his boss.” FORUM NEWS-SL is patiently waiting to see if at all Bio will place Sellu on a borrowed time.