The Sierra Leone Police have issued a warrant of arrest for an opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) activist Kabiru Kamara, who was accused of rebellious conduct that has the tendency to breach the peace and possibly leads to uprising in Dama village and it surroundings and the Kenema district in the Eastern Province of the Republic of Sierra Leone is not nip in the bud.
After surviving months of repeated raids and harassments for calling out the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), Kamara has been on the run for fear of his life. He is still at large since the police issued a warrant for his arrest.
The head of criminal investigations at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) recently issued a notice declaring Kabiru Kamara wanted, accusing him of rebellious conduct, plans to breach the peace which has the tendency for uprising.
In a very strange scenario, it was Kabiru Kamara’s father, Mr. Amadu Kamara who made the report against his son for calling out the government as he is a staunch member of the ruling SLPP party and an elder and supreme leader of the traditional Poro Council in Dama village.
According an anonymous source, Kabiru and his father had a dispute, after he refused to be part of their traditional poro society where Mr. Amadu Kamara is the supreme leader.
Pa Amadu had earlier identify Kabiru to be his successor to the Poro Council as tradition demands but Kabiru was very defiant on that as he sees himself too educated to sit in the council of a traditional society.
The Poro elders are on Pa Amadu’s throat to handover Kabiru for initiation but Kabiru was very much reluctant and continued calling out the bad governance policies of the ruling party as he is a member of the opposition APC and Kenema district is the strongest base of the ruling SLPP. The elders and some youth supporting the SLPP were clandestinely planning to kidnap Kabiru and take him to the Poro society shrine for initiation but the information leaked to Kabiru and without delay, fled Dama for his safety. It an established norm and practice in the poro society in the Eastern part of Sierra Leone for men not to survive forceful initiation into poro society. Kabiru’s mother has even left the matrimonial home because her husband as reported their son to the police for calling out the SLPP and at the same time wanted to forcefully initiate him into the poro society which she believes he will not survive. .
“Everyone in Dama village knows the reason behind the hatred Pa Amadu Kamara has for his son, ranging from the poro society saga onto the political differences.
The life of Kabiru is currently at risk as the Police are looking for him and at the same time ruling party youths are searching for him. The fear of his mother is the venom and animosity the village youths have for his son. She told this writer that her son will not see the light of day if he falls into the hands of the village youth and the poro elders as almost all of them are unapologetic supporters of the ruling party and members of the poro society.
According to family sources, Kamara has secretly fled the country.
Since he took over the reins of governance President Julius Maada Bio has been widely criticized for his policies including the high handedness of the security sector. There is evidence of Police shooting peaceful protesters in Freetown and other parts of the country including the Southern and the Eastern provinces which are his strongholds. Many youths supporting the opposition APC have been killed in cold blood and their killers have never been brought to book.
Kabiru was very vocal in critiquing the SLPP and his father was against that as he is the spokesperson of the SLPP in Dama and an elder in the poro council.
Meanwhile Kabiru is still on the run with his whereabouts unknown. The Sierra Leone Police has come under heavy criticism for issuing a warrant of arrest for someone who did nothing but is a victim of false allegation by his own father for divergent political views and refusal to serve as replacement for his father in the poro elders’ council. Kabiru will not get fair trial if he is arraigned before a court of law in his home district as the government has captured all state institutions including the judiciary.