By Umaru Fofana
The spokesman of the main opposition All People’s Congress says he is prepared to return home.
Speaking to Politico from The Gambia, Cornelius Deveaux said if the police withdrew the “wanted” notice and dropped the le 5 million bounty on his head he would be prepared to come back to Sierra Leone immediately.
He was declared wanted by the Sierra Leone Police following clashes at the APC party headquarters on 31 May. The police accused him of public order offences and asked him to report to them.
“The police order for me to report was illegal, so I could not have endorsed their illegality by obliging their order,” Deveaux told Politico.
“Sierra Leone is my home and I want to return to my motherland but not under such circumstances”, he went on.
“We have fought for our hard won democracy and state institutions should therefore defend democracy and not subject themselves to the whims and caprices of the powerful” he said.
The Director of Crimes Services, AIG Brima Jah said they were operating within the principles of the rule of law.
“Cornelius Deveaux cannot tell us how to run the police or how to get wanted people”, Jah said.
“If he is quite sure he didn’t do anything wrong he should have stayed and reported to us as requested”, he went on.
Jah said Deveaux could report to the police today if he was convinced he did nothing wrong. He said those who were arrested were released when no evidence was found against them, while those against whom evidence existed were charged using the rule of law.
“We have respected the human rights of all of them”, he said.
© 2019 Politico Online
