A senior APC (All People’s Congress) politician who spoke, on condition of anonymity, has told this press that President Julius Maada Bio has pushed ‘late seed’ as he tries to right past wrongs at the eleventh hour.
“Correcting wrongs of yester years is a mistake on his part and party,” he says adding that he would have succeeded had he practised tolerance at the start.
Since 2018, he said, President Bio embarked on a terror campaign against opposition politicians and the people of Sierra Leone using state institutions especially the courts, the police and the army.
The defunct Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) from which travel bans and other restrictive measures emanated were also part of the campaign. The ban was also seen as a ploy for Bio to shut down APC and continued to hold reigns of state command illegally and indefinitely.
Suffice it to say that Bio’s action has brought about suffering to those citizens who diligently served their motherland for years. The ban also frustrated senior APC politicians resulting into their deaths as justice was never served, and that history is taking note of the existing and future problems.
However, calls to work together and put an end to the menace and safeguard the nation’s creed continue to pour in.
In her tweet, a Sierra Leonean citizen, Vickie Remoe said she was aware of a situation in which a travel ban remained in force for someone who had been cleared of all wrong doings by the COI.
“The government still maintained the travel ban although the COI said the person was not culpable. While waiting for the travel ban to be lifted, the person fell ill and their family wanted to travel, but government refused,” he recounted.
The affected person, she said, died from the complications of the illness. “I think of him as well as his family’s suffering and grief and how the ban lifting will not bring him back,” she lamented.
Vikie’s claims have been supported by one-time, Anti-Corruption Commissioner, Ady Macauley who said he faced similar situation.
“I was placed on a travel ban by Bio’s government for five years and two and half of those years, I was unable to leave the shores of Sierra Leone,” he narrated.
He said, the interesting thing, he was never investigated by the COI or any other authority adding that this is the time for answers and not commendations although his constitutional right to freedom of movement has been restored. “Can someone explain to me how my name got into that list,” he asked albeit rhetorical.
Another APC politician, Atrhur Pearce also explained his ordeals saying he was arrested and detained for 11 days by Bio’s government. He was later released without charges not even a statement saying “we are sorry for the misinformation from social media.”
“Can you imagine that I reported the fake social media account to the very police before the arrest at Siaka Stevens Street,” he stressed.
Arthur, the innocent young politician, was released on bail owing to pressure from the public as well as APC leadership, human rights lawyers and family.
A concerned citizen, Amadu Jalloh also informed his uncle and the APC Chairman for Tonkolili district that former Minister of Education, Minkialu Bah was ill, but was stopped from leaving Magburaka town for better medical attention abroad.
Like other affected persons, Minkailu Bah also fell ill, during Covid-19, and died few days later. The late minister was among those whose passports were seized by government and Sierra Leoneans argued that he would have stayed alive if government had granted him access to better medical facilities.
In a related development, the house of a senior APC official was also posthumously seized and turned into a public asset despite distress calls from the public.
Victim, Momoh Conteh was Director of National Telecommunication Commission in the then government of Ernest Bai Koroma. Conteh’s mother was threatened before thrown out on allegations that the house was constructed with ill-gotten wealth.
One of Conteh’s relatives, Isata Kabia who was badly affected by the disgrace and humiliation told a sad story. “Government claimed that the late man used unexplained wealth to construct his house,” she told this press adding that government used the COI to humiliate the late man and his family.
The eviction was carried out by police officers acting under PAOPA ideology. Other victims also offered accounts on how their loved ones perished owing to the five-year travel ban.