Police in Freetown have on Wednesday 10th July, 2024 unlawfully prevented members of the Sierra Leone Bar Association (SLBA) from holding their Extraordinary General Meeting at the News Brookfields Hotel in Freetown. The SLBA EGM comes up in the wake of reported alleged flawed discovered in the association’s recent Annual General Meeting hosted in Kenema for which certain members feel dissatisfied and thus called for an Extraordinary General Meeting in Freetown.
Lawyers who were scheduled to converge at New Brookfields Hotel the slated venue, were greeted with teargas canisters fired by personnel of the Sierra Leone Police who were deployed at the conference centre. In a notification electronically signed and shared by the organizers of the EGM, Wara-Serry Kamal and Augustine-Sengbe Marah informed lawyers to stay where they were if they had not gone to the conference before police brutality were mated on their comrades, as there were heavily armed police presence at the meeting venue.
The notification said that police didn’t allow lawyers to enter the proposed EGM conference hall. We are proceeding with the meeting virtually. It was reported that, they shared links about 15 minutes from the stated start time. According to Lawyer Serry-Kamal, they are not a group that must have power by all means. Everything that happened today has just strengthened our resolve. “We are not removing ourselves from this course and we will not back down. People who are pretending to be directors are not our directors. They are trying to impose themselves on us, using state machinery to basically oppress us”, she said.
She stated that, they have to fight and they have to fight as lawyers. She affirmed that the nation is watching them. According to her, they are supposed to be highly educated people in this country. She urged the aggressors not to dispute that fact. “No retreat no surrender. Let us regroup and ensure that this EGM happen. Let us move the motions that we have proposed”, said Wara-Serry Kamal.
Videos and still images of the scene shared on social media showed heavily armed police presence that stopped lawyers from accessing the hall to conduct their conference as scheduled. Emerged from the scene were bitter exchange of words between armed police personnel and lawyers. The lawyers said, it is because of state sponsored repressive action by government that have wiped out investors’ confidence to engage in viable trade and commercial activities in the country.
The management of New Brookfields Hotel in a letter addressed to one of the factions of the SLBA distanced itself from the activities of lawyers Wara-Serry Kamal and Augustine-Sengbe Marah. The hotel management called for an injunction backed by heavily armed police deployment that they didn’t grant access to lawyers to the hall. It could be recalled that the controversial president of the SLBA had declared the proposed EGM as an illegal gathering which may have precipitated police disruption of the event. According to report, members attending the blocked event sounded their displeasure over what they described as government’s used of security forces to trample upon their constitutional right.
“Freedom of association and assembly is a fundamental human right enshrined in our country’s constitution. Why do these people want to turn our country into a police state?” one lawyer asked. They added that the acts of police have broader implications on civil liberties in Sierra Leone.
