In April, 2018, Julius Maada Bio was sworn in President of Sierra Leone after defeating the incumbent candidate, Samura Kamara marking the end of APC (All People’s Congress)’s 11-year rule (2007-2018). Bio’s taking over power through the ballot box marked the third democratic political transition in post-war Sierra Leone. It is the second time that Bio is presiding over the affairs of the nation.
He ruled once as a military head of state and Chairman of the military body, the National Provisional Ruling Council in 1996 and he came back in 2018 as a civilian and democratically elected President.
Great hope was reposed in him to ensure that Sierra Leone recover from the devastating effect of Ebola epidemic, failings in agriculture, inflation and joblessness among the youth.
These welfare issues form the crux of the people’s aspirations in a post-Ebola economy, and determined to the ugly past behind. Bio’s mantra of “bread-and-butter” economy resonates with one of the people’s aspiration of improving agricultural productivity in Sierra Leone. The handing-over notes left behind by the immediate past regime of Ernest Koroma was a cautionary and guiding book for the regime.
But, the SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party /PAOPA was not inclined to use any of the APC government’s previous policies, and decided to go his own way hidden in the “New Direction” policy which signaled a total deviation from what they called “an old system of governance.”
In days, Bio’s government of “New Direction” became misdirection by turning once a stable state to a fragile state through some radical actions and policies. The hunt of former government officials’ particular raiding their homes for vehicles by disorganized bands of vigilantes linked to the SLPP made the 2018 democratic transition as a military takeover.
Below is a catalog of the PAOPA’s political decisions that makes it worth remembering when Bio shall have exited power.
*Widespread Killings: In mid-2018, the Bio/PAOPA regime orchestrated a killing spree that cost the lives of hundreds of people particularly in towns and villages in opposition strongholds in the Northwest regions. About three months after President Bio took the seat of power in 2018, a contingent of police and military personnel, in a joint operation, broke into a small village called Rosengbe in Tonkolili district with a heavy gunfire without informing the Local Unit Commander on the ground.
The operation, police sources said, was to halt the cultivation of Canabis, a harmful drug addicted and abused by the youth. The operation which went on for several hours left one person dead, several others injured and property carted away with suspicion that they were proceeds of the sale of ‘Canabi Sativa.’ The commercial motorist (Okada rider) was the sole casualty in the security operation as reports stated that he refused to hand over his bike as demanded by the security forces.
The Local Unit Commander was immediately suspended when he came on air to set the records straight about what should be the normal protocols in carrying out such an operation. The next flashpoint for brutal killings was in Makeni, the Northeastern capital.
In July 2020, government forces gunned down about a dozen youths who protested against the relocation of a-6Kva electricity generator from Makeni to Lungi, in PortLoko district. Zainab Catherine Tarawally, a parliamentarian representing one of the constituencies in Bombali district, said 20 was the exact number of protesters killed during the forceful relocation of the reserved thermal plant. Official sources however put the number of those killed as six. In a related development, local authorities in Makeni were also threatened with arrest and detention owing to allegations of inciting the protest.
Government’s killing machine also moved to the Iron Ore mining community of Lunsar in Port Loko district where the youth took to the streets in April, 2020 protesting hardship and suffering following the shutdown of mining in the community. A good number of community youths crumbled under the barrel of the gun although there is no exact statistics of the casualties.
Kambia district which is also an opposition stronghold saw similar spate of violence during a bye-election held March, 2021 in Constituency 057 hotly contested by the ruling party, SLPP and the APC. An ardent APC supporter was shot dead by the security forces during some skirmishes that took place during the polls.
In Tombo, a fishing community in the Western Rural district, protesters were also shot dead in May, 2020 when they kicked against a government ban on fishing amid Covid-19 pandemic. The fishermen whose livelihood came under threat as a result of the ban voiced out their concerns in an uneasy calm manner when heavy-handed security personnel responded in a lethal style. Like several places highlighted here, the number of casualties also remain a top secret.
The gun violence moved from Tombo to Pa Demba Road main correctional center where inmates were gunned down in April, 2020 by military personnel who said they attempted to forestall a prison break. The nightmare descended on the inmates who were trying to resist a trial ban imposed by former Chief Justice, Babatunde Edwards at the peak of Covid-19.
One suspected case of Covid-19 at the detention facility triggered the ban which meant no prisoner would come to court for trial for one month and visits by friends and family members were also restricted. By all standards, the inmates were held in in-communicado detention, and they attempted to go on the rampage to get a fair and speedy trial as laid down by Section 23 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991.
Government sources put the number of casualties at 30 while unofficial sources suggested more than a hundred. Several senior government and SLPP officials including former SLPP Women’s Wing Leader, Fatmata Sewaneh were reportedly present at the scene of the massacre. Fatmata Sewaneh is currently Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to Guinea and an audio she released at the wake of the carnage implicated other senior government officials including Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Lahai Lawrence Leema.
Another bloody scene of bloodbath occurred in Freetown and other parts of the country in August 10, 2022 when protesters took to the streets demanding the resignation of President Bio owing to the high cost of living. The protest took away the lives of 26 people not counting those killed in secret extra-judicial execution schemes allegedly masterminded by Lawrence Leema. Six police personnel were also hacked to death while on active duty.
During a period close to 2023 general elections, intermittent waves of violence erupted in Kailahun, Bo Bonthe and Pujehun with APC members, supporters and sympathizers being the main casualties. In Kailahun, a perceived APC party supporter, Satta Lamin was gang raped and nearly killed at her farm in 2018 by some youths shortly after the announcement of the election results.
Reports noted that she was stripped naked, hanged on a stick and paraded in the village for several hours before she was freed and told to leave. Only God knows where she stays today with people doubting whether she was alive.
APC Supporters and sympathizers in Pujehun, Southern Sierra Leone, mostly women were physically attacked in June, 2023, reports stated, by thugs linked to the SLPP while returning home after Massa Rogers, the wife of Samura Kamara, APC’s presidential candidate. Pujehun Women paid a courtesy call to Massa Rogers expressing joy that Pujehun was going to make a proud history of having Sierra Leone’s First Lady. The visits to a supposed First Lady turned into terrible nightmare for ‘Wanjamarians’ as most of them sustained broken limbs resulting in admissions in various health facilities.
Scenes of similar spate Violence were also seen, in May, 2023 in Bonthe District, the home of President Bio. APC members and supporters on Bonthe Island were reportedly targeted for brutality by SLPP supporters, and reports stated that the police had not been neutral in such partisan conflicts.
Violence was directed at Daddy Avondor who won a councilor seat in ward 308 in Bonthe district during a bye-election in 2018. Most of the APC supporters would be frequently detained in police custody and released without charges.
APC Chairlady, Cecilia Ngobeh in Bo city, Southern Sierra Leone, was attacked and houses and vehicles set ablaze in June, 2020 by marauding youths linked to the SLPP, but she narrowly escaped for her life. Such violence against a senior opposition politician mirrored the scenery of house burning and attacks against then APC Chairman, Shek Sillah in 2011 when the party was in governance.
In September, 2023, just three months after the controversial presidential elections, police brutally crushed some pockets of resistance to the allegedly widely rigged polls resulting into some deaths at Moyiba Community, eastern Freetown. A resident of Moyiba community told this press that more than six people were killed including Alfred Kallon, a disabled top-up seller.
Later, there were reports that two people were gunned down by the police in Masiaka in Port Loko district months after the 2023 elections. The situation became scary when presidential guards at State Lodge brandished their AK 47 and 58 rifles threatening to “iron brush” anyone who stood in the way of SLPP for the 2023 general election.
Notable among them was a soldier called “Hungry Lion” widely known for outlandish military fatigue and thirst for blood, but has been out of sight for some months now. A general feeling that he might have been guillotined by the PAOPA killing machines hangs on the air.
The scale of violence and brutality perpetuated in SLPP’S eight-year is second only to Sierra Leone’s civil war (1991-2002) which claimed the lives of over 50, 000 (fifty thousand) people according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, 2004.
Widespread Dismissals and Lay-offs:
Widespread dismissals, lay-offs and rampant termination of employment contracts are hallmarks of the Bio regime.
The sudden loss of jobs is directed mainly to workers of North-Western backgrounds and perceived APC supporters and sympathizers. Employment contracts of almost 100 workers were terminated at Statistics Sierra Leone creating a hue and cry among the public.
To be Continue next edition