The ruling SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) is on a time-bomb owing to uncontrollable violence in the party. Violence among members may lead to the party’s implosion which may also threaten the peace and security of the state.
Personnel of the Operations Support Division (OSD), the paramilitary wing of the police constantly keep guard of SLPP headquaters on Wallace Johnson Street in Freetown. Intermittent waves of violence erupted in the party lately when youths who have colonised the party headquaters were told to quit. The hopeless youths have nowhere to go and therefore see violence as the last resort.
They have threatened to regroup, and take back the party headquaters by whatever means at their disposal. The youths who have waited for compensation too long after the SLPP victory were never compensated.
The New Direction Government has operationalised the proverbial clause of ‘MONKEY WOKE BABOON EAT.’ The youths have occupied the party headquaters for months as a dwelling house having nowhere to go.
Removing them from the party building by the use of force is creating violence ever seen in any political party. The violence may have a spill-over effect to other parts of Freetown, and place other peaceful citizens under threat.
Frustrated and angry youths still hang around SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) headquaters on Wallace Johnson Street in Freetown. They are disappointed and disillusioned since their dreams have shattered.
The youths are also barred from entering the party premises which have now become a no-go area. The order was released from the party leadership after it was discovered that some youths were using the party headquaters as a dwelling house.
As the youths dwell there, theft of property and violence is not uncommon. Violence and thievery threatens the peace and security of traders. The order to vacate has created divisions and camps within the party.
Some youths saw the order as legal and support it while others affected by the order see it as illegal and disappointing. The youths are at each other’s throat as those who have been told to leave threatened to come back, and they would come back at all cost.
Use of invectives and threats of violence rock the ruling party headquaters. An angry youth spoke to this press at the scene of the scuffle. He said during the campaign in 2018, they sacrificed their safety to bring back SLPP to power. They bore severe brutality in the hands of their opponents to see that SLPP is ushered into governance.
Today, he says, we have been abandoned to our fate. The angry youth does not hesitate to register his resistance to the order to quit; he threatens to come back.
They told this press that finding somewhere to go was painstaking adding that the only option is to get back to the headquaters, their usual abode.
“I have been in the party for several months now. Why should they ask us to quit at this time. This is a very embarrassing and unfortunate situation for us. We have nowhere to go, and we must come back,” an angry youth fumed.
Another youth who seemed the most frustrated rained insulting languages against an elderly man who attempted to pacify him. He told this press that he would not accept the order to leave as he finds it difficult to do so.
“We will come back,” he told this press in an interview.
Apart from the threat to come back, the threat not to vote for the SLPP in the coming election is very clear. “Because of the treatment we are receiving from our brothers for whom we have fought very hard to come to power, we will never vote for the SLPP in the coming election. They have badly disappointed us,” one of the angry youths threatened.
The usual violent encounter between the police and the angry youths is also another constant source of worry for the country’s decorum. Apart from quarrels and scuffles within their ranks, the angry youths also had it hot with the police who are trying to implement the order.
No one knows where the scuffles between the angry youths and the security operatives would end. Behind the SLPP violence is a closely guarded secret within top party hierarchy. An insider source who spoke on condition of anonymity told this press that the irate youths were those transported from the provinces to Freetown.
They were brought into the city by the use of fine promises during the campaign to bring back SLPP to governance. The youths spared none of their time and their energy to ensure that SLPP is brought back to power.
The youths ran several risks, put up with the heat of the day and endured the chill of the night to ensure that the dream of bringing back SLPP to power was realised.
Indeed, their dream was transformed into a reality; SLPP came back to power in 2018.
In the midst of victory, a big hope stood most prominent among supporters. The hope of tapping the largesse of power ran high among the youths, but the outcome is counter-productive. The youths who toiled for victory have been dumped, and now barred from the party headquaters.
Their hopes and dreams have been dashed, and violence nurtured within the party.
Other credible sources have intimated this press that the violence at SLPP headquaters spilled over to Belgium community on Wallace John Street. One of the sources told this press that the burning down of Belgium shops and other facilities was well planned at the party headquaters by the frustrated youths.
The rubble is now guarded by well-armed police officers. Superintendent Momodu Kargbo is in charge of the police contingent posted there. Reason for the deployment remains one of the hottest topics for discussion.
It is not clear whether the police are there to protect the rubble or to restrain the traders from taking back their facilities. The action of setting Belgium ablaze is reminiscent of the days in which stark illiterate villagers were transported from the south-eastern region in the mould of Kamajors to cause mayhem in the city.
The violence hanging on the party headquaters is part of a spree of violence that the party of intellectuals has been trapped in recent times. A youth was brutally murdered few days ago at an ‘ATAYA BASE’ at Last Station, Calaba Town community in Freetown.
The deceased was fatally injured by a colleague SLPP member during an argument at the base. Events that followed the death of the SLPP youth were also violent.
An angry youth, armed with a cutlass, brought down the signpost bearing the portraits of President Julius Maada Bio and Vice President, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh.
He threatened to cut down into pieces anyone who confronted him. Investigation mounted by this press confirmed that the violence emanated from arguments between two SLPP youths who supported different candidates for the chairmanship of the party.
The seat of chairman is now hotly contested by an SLPP stalwart, Batilo Songa and the incumbent, Dr Prince Harding. The rivalry between the two candidates has added camps to the party that worsens an already polarised situation. Another credible source within the party also told this press that violence in the SLPP traced its origin to the emergence of the ‘PAOPA’ ideology.
‘PAOPA,’ in krio parlance means ‘by force, and in the context of SLPP politics, it means come to power and rule at all cost. The slang which was highly popular during the 2018 election, was used by politicians to mean the betterment of Sierra Leone by force.
To many, the prosperity of Sierra Leone through force or violence is one of the biggest political propaganda of the century.
But, the youths were brainwashed into believing that PAOPA ideology is about the country’s development and wasted no time to subscribe to it.
Now, the violence is hitting hard the SLPP, and the party now fears what it has created. Until the frustrated villagers from the south and east are taken back with compensation, there would be no peace in the SLPP.