Freetown will be painted red next Wednesday (17th January, 2024) as former President Ernest Bai Koroma will appear, for the second time, before a magistrate court in Freetown for charges of treason. Koroma was Chairman and Leader of the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) which was in governance between 2007 and 2018. He led the APC for 22 years through turbulent times. He was also leader even after the Presidency not until a court dissolved his executive in April, 2022.
He is currently held under ‘house arrest’ at his residence in Freetown where heavily armed soldiers have been deployed. Magistrate Santigie Bangura is currently presiding over the matter and a self-bail has been granted to the former President. In sympathy with the former President, a man that is held in high esteem, zonal, constituency, district, regional and national executives have been invited to Freetown for Wednesday’s hearing.
Business associations especially petty traders nationwide will also join the train for the red-lettered day. Businesses are expected to shut down with Abacha Street taking the lead. Women holding top positions within the party also have been informed for appropriate actions on the streets. It is however not clear whether grassroot members would be mobilised for Wednesday’s event.
A source within APC has told this press that the people of Sierra Leone are determined to honour the former President as there is a big doubt over his alleged involvement in a security breach that later became an “attempted coup.”
Bio’s campaign message to the people of Kailahun that he would arrest and detain the former President in the 2023 campaigns is also another factor that will take Sierra Leoneans out on the streets on Wednesday according to an opposition politician.
“I will put Ernest Koroma in a tight place if he does not behave like a statesman,” Bio assured kailahun residents during one of his campaign tours in the South-East, SLPP strongholds. Bio was also said to have made such utterances even before the election especially in his trips to the North-west regions. Bio’s promise of detaining the former President was re-echoed by his deputy, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh who also said “the former President would be arrested if he does not behave as a statesman.”
Although muscles to nail the former President have been flexed, none could tell in which way the former President has failed to comport himself. Others also suspect hysteria or paranoia on the part of government. The doubt was further strengthened by Koroma’s successful two-term rule and the peaceful transfer of power to his successor, President Julius Maada Bio. Diplomatic missions to Sierra Leone especially the United States Embassy has expressed doubt over the “attempted Coup.”
The Ambassador was quoted saying that “no sober-minded opposition politician would take part in a plot to overthrow a government that is not recognised by many Sierra Leoneans as well as the international community. Although APC supporters are preparing for a coup, it remains unclear, at the moment, whether the police would accept a large number of attendants in the courts. Since his detention, the number of visitors to the former President has been restricted.
Koroma was summoned by the police on December 8, last year ordering him to report within 28 hours at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) where he was interrogated for 40 hours according to counsel Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara.
Since his indictment, the former President has been battling with treason charges brought against him by the government of President Julius Maada Bio. Most of Koroma’s present and former military guards are currently in detention for similar charges while others fatally injured.
Among them was the main body guard to the former President, Idrissa Hamid Kamara aka Leather Boot who was shot on the spot upon arrest. Arguments and counter-arguments over Koroma’s alleged involvement in the November 26 coup have gone viral in local and international circles. The issue was a hot topic for discussion, few days ago, at Radio France International (RFI), one of the world’s 24-hour news channels.
RFI labelled President Julius Maada Bio as a man who masterminded two coups in a row toppling then APC government of President Joseph Saidu Momoh in 1992 and his former NPRC (National Provisional Ruling Council) boss, Captain Valentine Strasser. Bio’s notoriety for coups was recently amplified by his wife, the First Lady, Fatima Bio who once said “Bio holds a PhD in coup.”
Sierra Leone and the international community were struck by the First Lady’s utterances especially at a time when the Western World and the United States are working hard to make Africa a better place for its people.
Coups and counter coups will render the continent unstable and take it backwards. The November coup claim was the third in a series since Bio took over state command in Sierra Leone in April, 2018.
The first coup alarm came from the SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) Spokesman, Lahai Lawrence Leema, a week after Bio was sworn in. He alleged that Ernest Koroma and key APC members were holding a meeting in Makeni City to overthrow Bio’s new government. No action came as Bio was struggling to stabilise his new government as many found it difficult to accept the outcome of 2018 elections.
In august last year, the Police also raised a red flag about subversion declaring several persons including Chief Superintendent of Police, Mohamed Turay aka Yaetay Yaetay wanted. Police claimed that few Sierra Leoneans were mobilising to overthrow President Bio and take over state administration. The allegation led to the arrest of CSP Turay who was seeking refuge in neighbouring Liberia owing to harassment and intimidation by Bio’s government.
He was held at a maximum security prison in the capital city Freetown but got back his freedom during November 26 attacks in a so-called prison break. Yaetay Yaetay and most of those arrested were kept incommunicado as none appeared before a magistrate or judge for trial. Incommunicado and prolonged detention without trial is a mockery of justice as the constitution of Sierra Leone provides that an accused must be speedily and fairly tried by a competent judicial authority in which defence rights are guaranteed.
The law prescribes 10 days as maximum detention periods for capital offences and 72 hours for minor offences. It was also the same with the coup of November 26 which came at a time an election probe against the government was in full swing owing to deeply flawed multi-tier elections of June 24, last year.
However, inter-governmental agencies particularly the sub-regional bloc, ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) who had earlier requested the Sierra Leone government to grant the former President temporal relocation in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja remain highly concerned about the elections in Sierra Leone. The request came after two West African Leaders, Senegalese and Ghanian Presidents Macky Sall and Nana Akufor Addo respectively visited President Bio in Freetown as well Ernest Koroma who was under House arrest in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital.
ECOWAS seems concerned about the deteriorating security situation in Sierra Leone and the arrest and detention of former President Koroma would worsen matters. Seemingly without thorough consideration, government however rejected ECOWAS appeal for Koroma to seek an asylum suspecting a ploy between the former President and the sub-regional bloc.
Reports about a feud between ECOWAS and Sierra Leone government over Koroma’s situation are rife with daggers drawn at each other. The strained relationship between the two entities (government and ECOWAS) has resulted into a delayed or non-deployment of ECOMOG troops in Sierra Leone, a situation that intensifies fear of fragile state as politics enters the courtroom.