The Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) has on Thursday 23 February 2023 raised serious concerns about the spate of state sponsored violence being perpetrated by security personnel against members and supporters of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC).
In a letter addressed to the leadership of the Sierra Leone in the person of the Inspector General of Police, William Fayia Sellu and the entire Executive Management Board of the Sierra Leone Police, the PPRC Chairman, lawyer Abdulai Masiyambay Bangurah firmly registered his commission’s grave concerns about Wednesday 22 February 2023 attack on the APC National Secretary General, lawyer Lansana Dumbuya, his driver at Regent Road Hill Station opposite Presidential Lodge.
Reports claim that the attack was unlawfully executed by presidential guards on alleged orders of President Julius Maada Bio.
PPRC Chairman Bangurah therefore urged the IGP to institute speedy and independent investigations into the attack and come out with appropriate disciplinary actions against perpetrators if substantiated.
A social media post shared Wednesday night by Hon Abdul Kargbo on his twitter wall informed that his comrades were beaten at a check point mounted by security guards at the President’s lodge at Hill Station.
“Our newly elected National Secretary General, Comrade Lansana Dumbuya was mercilessly beaten and laid on the floor. He is currently complaining serious pains on his right side”, twitted Hon Kargbo.
Also violently victimised by President Bio;s guards, was the Mayor of the Municipality of Freetown City Council, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer. Her laptop computer was stolen similarly as the presidential guards stole the belongings including cash and phones of the driver of lawyer Lansana Dumbuya.
Speaking on the Africa Young Voice Television news channel, Mayor Aki-Sawyer said, “I am deeply depressed by this, and I will be taking the necessary steps to retrieve my laptop from the presidential guards. The presidential guards have no tight to seize my laptop, even if my driver have committed a traffic offence, which I made to understand he hasn’t. What has my laptop got to do with going through the checkpoint”. She said Sierra Leone is governed by a multiparty democracy which comes along with freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of movement which are not allowed in the country now.
It could be recalled that the APC National Secretary General, lawyer Lansana Dumbuya and Madam Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr were Wednesday 22 February allegedly attacked by presidential guards at Hill Station during which lawyer Dumbuya and his driver were beaten by presidential guards.
