Sunday’s attacks on the armoury at Wilberforce Barracks and other military installations have again  raised treason-related allegations with former President Ernest Bai Koroma seen as a prime suspect.

Arrest and investigation of the former Head of State for treasonable offence is being considered by the principal law enforcement agency, but the effort is now on hold as the army chief seems to have exonerated him.

Lieutnant-General Peter Lavahun says “there is no direct association between the attempted coup and the ex-President,” he said while allaying fears of unrest and instability in the country.

Mr Lavahun whose responsibility now is to restore law and order encourages Sierra Leoneans to stop touting Sunday’s attacks as a coup as he says “it is not a coup, but an ordinary attack on military facilities.”

The Army Chief dismissed claims of a coup during a media interview as a way setting the records straight and to guide the investigation.

 Although the army were not successful in their overall objective, he however admitted that arms and ammunition were carted away by the assailants.

However, the stance by the Army Chief does not in any shape or form alter action by the police who have arrested several suspects and launched a manhunt for others who have gone at large.

In a press briefing last Tuesday, Police Chief, William Fayia Sellu told journalists that several persons were in police custody and many more will be arrested in connection to the coup attempt.

A list of wanted persons has been put out by police high command including the names of senior police officers, former Assistant Inspector-general, Alfred Karrow Kamara and Chief Superintendent of Police, Mohamed Turay aka Yaetay Yaetay.

Warrants for the arrest of the two senior police officers remain in force; ex-servicemen as well serving soldiers of high ranks also have been declared wanted.

A manhunt for Inmates who escaped during a break on the country’s main correctional centre has been launched to bring them back.

Out of the 1, 890 that broke loose from their cells, not even a 100 have been captured, and Key prisoners including the famous rapper, Alhaji Jalloh aka LAJ voluntarily surrendered to prison authorities while over a 1,000 are still in their hideouts.

Police and military intelligence networks have been activated and armed patrols actively going on with a dusk-to-dawn curfew in place.

In their investigation effort, the police also try to link the former President to the attempted coup as military aides to the former President, Idriss Ahmid Kamara aka Leather Boot and Soriba Sesay were said to have played a leading role in Sunday’s shooting.

Audio-visuals on several media platforms show that Ernest Koroma’s ex-body guards were gunned down in a counter-response although contrary information have dismissed such claims as a video of Leather Boot chilling with his wife in London while the attacks were taking place here in Sierra Leone has also gone viral.

 Soribah’s alleged involvement in the attacks on Freetown also has been refuted as many claimed that it was not he that lay in the pool of blood, but it could be a very senior official in the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC).

 However, a military personnel guarding the house of the former President was shot dead and another taken hostage.

The house in question is located at Femi Turner Drive at Goderich in Freetown approximately 30-minute drive from where the armed attacks took place.

The coup allegations against is the latest in a series of allegations that have been made against the ex-President although most times many would defend him as an innocent man.

Eye-brows were recently raised against the former President when Yaetay Yaetay was picked up in neighbouring Liberia accusing him of a plot to overrun Freetown and take over the administration of state.

Several others were also arrested and incarcerated while arrest warrants for runaway suspects remain outstanding.

Moves to rope in the former President were also made, but law enforcement officials were held back owing to doubt that there was no evidence to bring in the ex-president for treason.

Mr Koroma  also came under Pressure in the early days of 2018 just a week after President Julius Maada Bio took the oath of office as allegation of toppling the President were rife.

Sacked Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Lahai Lawrence Leema made serious allegations against the former President of an attempt to unseat the government. In such a situation, he made a serious case about bringing in a man who has served the country as a first gentlemen for treason saying “it is no big deal to arrest Ernest Koroma and detain him.”

The then minister was very anxious and passionate about the arrest and incarceration of the ex-President although reason for such desperation was never explained.

But, a popular argument at that time held that SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) would never be comfortable with the Presence of the former President in Sierra Leone.

 Many wanted him to stay out of the country with Guinea suggested as the best place for him to leave.

 But, the suggestion was not quite a good one as staying out of Sierra Leone means another thing for the President as claims of treason, corruption and money laundering against the President would have been water-tight.

But, as long as President Koroma remains in Sierra Leone, such allegations would continue to hunt him as with the current coup being one of the best examples.

However, calls by staunch and grassroot members of APC for the former President to act tough have been intensified  as military attacks are now very close to his doorsteps.

A senior APC politician says, the lives of two guards watching over the President’s facility in Freetown have been taken away by gunmen, and doubt about might happen in few days is ongoing.

 The APC politician who spoke to this press on condition of anonymity says the President’s only two daughters could be next in the attacks that seems to be spiraling out of control.

 Constant allusions to attacks on the President’s daughter in early 2018 were made in a clear move to show the extent to which government could stop at nothing in hounding the former President.

The calculated attacks were ones that took the President aback especially looking at the relationship that once existed between him and President Julius Maada Bio.  In a state of despair immediately after his daughter’s residence was raided, the President accused Bio of “either not in control or insincere with what was he was saying.”

By his words, it was clear that the former President had been brainwashed into believing that he would be protected when he left office.

 But, Bio’s actions which indicated a betrayal of trust shocked the former President if not angered him the most.

 Bio’s open claims that the former President was “not his friend” while addressing Sierra Leoneans on his successful completion of his third anniversary in power was also mentioned as a way of keeping Ernest on guard so that he could not be taken off-guard.

Bio’s open declaration of animosity by his comments threw many into wonders in light of Koroma’s magnanimity to President Bio and senior SLPP figures while in opposition.

 Koroma, according to reliable sources, enlisted Bio’s support and cooperation in the fight against the Ebola Virus which struck in May, 2014, and the ex-President’s financial aids to senior SLPP politicians have not vanished in people’s minds.

 The cherished memories and friendliness of the former President to opposition politicians still linger in the minds of those who see it as a pious and significant act in the same way Kola nuts last long in the mouth of those who value it.

 But, Bio’s claims and accusations against the former President has clearly shown that all is not well between the current and the former President.

The strained relationship between the current and past gentlemen became visible even in the campaign days leading to the June 24, general elections.

As if bereft in campaign messages, Bio threatened to reduce the former President to nothing if he dared interfere with the elections even when it became clear that Ernest Koroma bore no hand in the polls.

 However, as he was being pushed to the wall, the former President at one time attempted to caution Bio in a press release put out about two years ago.

 The former President urged Bio to keep a watchful eye on the limits of civility threatening that he would no longer tolerate humiliation.

The former President saw humiliation as one that might derail democracy not only in Sierra Leone but also in Africa as incumbents would find it difficult to transfer power to opposition candidates.

 But, the warning has been taken as a pinch of salt as allegations against the former President keep coming.