Since the commencement of the electioneering calendar that culminated into the conduct of the March 7th 2018 polls, journalism has greatly suffered under the hands of the ruling government’s operatives, in this case thugs.
These APC henchmen and killers have left nothing undone in the pursuit of journalists, especially photo journalists in the provinces of Sierra Leone. It makes the work of journalists in the interior very dangerous.
Henry Brown George is a freelance photo journalist plying his trade in the provinces. News filtering into the nightwatch newspaper detail that Henry Brown George has gone underground for fear of his life, as the marauding thugs, of the ruling APC government, are in hot pursuit of him .
There were series of news and publications including video clips which went viral in the country regarding how the so called APC were using government funds to lure and bribe citizens to enable them sell their votes so as to retain the power for another five years of which the so called APC dictators were informed that such news was relayed to various media houses in Freetown by photo journalists like Henry Brown George and the rest of them.
According to our Provincial Correspondent, Henry Brown George lately received threatening telephone calls from anonymous persons. Not being satisfied with threatening his life, the reports continued that, on the 4th of March being three days before the scheduled presidential election, APC thugs materialized at his hideout and almost succeeded in getting hold of him, but, for divine intervention, Henry Brown George narrowly escaped through the back door of his house and has since not been seen.
Many journalists have lost their lives and some have fled the country.
The reasons for pursuing Henry Brown George is because, as a photo journalist, he took photos of a bloody scene in Kamalo, the hometown of the ruling government’s presidential candidate, between supporters of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party and those of the ruling government (APC).
Some residents in Kamalo stated that the photos taken by George are very incriminatory and could lead to questions being asked by the international election observers and the citizens of Sierra Leone.
Because he could not be stopped from exposing these photos, George had to flee to an undisclosed location.
Secondly , due to several reports being made by photojournalists during the bloody election and campaign rally conducted by the APC party which was financed by the government in power by using tax payers money and donation being made by international organization for the development of the country.
And now that the APC have lost the election they are more than bloody to fish out those who wrote petition against them which led to decline of number of voters/supporters turn out that resulted in their opposition beating them with great margin in both the first election and the run off election.
Several of his relatives are worried that George could lose his life if APC operatives catch up with him. There are frantic efforts to search and locate George Henry Brown but, as I write this story, no one has yet sighted him anywhere in Sierra Leone.