The world watched keenly and with rapt attention on Sunday evening 2 April 2023 when Officers of the Special Division (OSD) of the Sierra Leone Police Force under the government and leadership of President Julius Maada Bio continued to do battle with the convoy of the leader and presidential candidate of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party, Dr Samura Mathiew Wilson Kamara, in order to prevent him from proceeding with his convoy into the city centre of Freetown.
That ensuing altercation during which the SLP officers allegedly shot at two tyres of a vehicle of the guards of the APC flag-bearer Dr Samura Kamara is telling of what hangs around the neck of Sierra Leone, and has added to the writings on the wall that the West African nation of about 8,605,718 million people is sitting on a time bomb waiting to explode now, during or after the presidential and parliamentary elections to take place in about 80 days’ time, precisely on 24 June this year.
Since coming to power, the Maada Bio-led regime has placed so much focus on trying to deflate and muzzle the opposition, particularly the APC, who were in governance and now forms the strongest opposition with a number of supporters many people would say larger than that of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party of Julius Maada Bio.
And because the Bio regime has excessively focused on ruthlessly dealing or victimizing and intimidating the opposition APC under the disguise of fighting corruption and bringing to book former APC government officials for allegedly corrupt practices in office, the Bio regime could not really pay full attention on running the affairs of state intelligently to, at least, the average satisfaction of the mass of people in Sierra Leone.
All what the people have seen and experienced in this quick but tense five-year term of Bio is revenge, human rights abuse, lawlessness/disrespect for the law, economic hardship, hyper inflation, police brutality, arrests, detention and killing of civilians across the country ranging from prison cells to various towns and cities in particularly the north and north west parts of the land.
It must also be noted that there has been complete disregard for loss of lives through the bullets of security apparatus under the Bio regime.
The regime has also overseen the most rapid inflationary trend in the history of Sierra Leone’s economic struggles, leading to serious hardship and hopelessness of people of the country.
As well, the people have continued to suffer oppression under the Bio regime over the last 5 years, as they were being refused the right to stage peaceful demonstration to relay or vent out their displeasure over how the country is being governed by Bio. That swollen displeasure and anger was forced to burst out on 10 August last year, which led to the destruction of many lives and properties now being heavily blamed on the Bio regime and security operatives by reputable national and international organisations concerned with human rights and the rule of law.
In addition to the displeasing situation in the country, the electioneering process to the upcoming June 24 polls have also heightened the political tension and the determination of the people to vote out Maada Bio and his SLPP regime at all cost, even if it means or warrants losing their lives in the process.
On the other hand, the Bio regime is massively ready to not let go power by any means necessary. And he has the weapons and the security operatives at his disposal, while the people are doggedly determined to face the Goliath as David did!
This situation in which both sides have been at daggers drawn has been set in train all this while, especially in the last two years, leading to the recent fracas at Mile 38 Checkpoint – 38 miles to the city centre – where the convoy of the APC presidential candidate was refused a triumphant entry into mainland Freetown to be accorded a kingly welcome from the United States of America by his droves of supporters across the length and breadth of Freetown. But that was loathed by the jittery leader of the ruling party hence the use of the security apparatus to prevent the convoy from entering the city centre.
And considering how the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) has been filled with mainly tribesmen, women and cronies of Bio, and how the ECSL has done everything possible to skew the voter registration process, and prevent people from registering as they should, just in favour of the incumbent or ruling SLPP, all and sundry are worried that there is already a lethal straw in the wind of Sierra Leone’s elections of June 24, 2023.
As the electioneering process gathers momentum, the nation continues to sense and see bitter dispute and rancour in the land that may lead to a catastrophic situation around the polls of 24 June this year – less than 80 days to come.
A case in point, therefore, is the war-like engagement at Mile 38 Checkpoint on April 2 between the OSD of the SLP and supporters of the APC presidential candidate Dr Samura Kamara.
While the April 3rd Public Notice by the SLP states that “some of the overzealous supporters in the convoy [of Dr Samura Kamara] even removed shirts and physically confronted the Police”, the whole world could see and view clearly, through the help of the Social Media, how the OSD of the Sierra Leone Police were firing tear gas canisters directly at the vehicle of the APC presidential candidate Dr Samura Kamara and into the crowds of people within the vicinity of the roadblock mounted by the police, even though the police conspicuously did not indicate that in their public notice.
All these incidents of violence and brutality by the security apparatus against the almighty people, who have continued to suffer and pour so much blood in trying to redeem themselves from the hands of the Bio regime, have set Sierra Leone on a time bomb to be exploded around the June 24 polls, if the ECSL fails to handle matters fairly and transparently in the country.
Coming events, they say, cast their shadows.
