By Septimus Senessie in Kono
The suspended Mayor of Koidu, Saa Emerson Lamina returned to the municipality yesterday amid tight police security to stop any of his supporters from processing to welcome him.
The police arrested 10 people for what the regional head AIG Alfred Karrow-Kamara said was “incitement and unlawful procession”.
18 motorbikes which he said were abandoned by their owners are currently under police custody.
Karrow-Kamara was not sure when the nine men and one woman would be charged to court but said that the police were still looking for more suspects.
Mayor Lamina said five of his supporters were injured. He named four of them as Christopher Ndoinjay, Tamba Gborie, Kumba Fillie and Steven Ansumana.
“I am safely at home after a huge crow turned out to welcome me from Bumpeh [eight miles outside Koidu] but I am very concerned about the unnecessary arrests of the avoidable injuries to my people” he told Politico.
He said they went through several checkpoints in Motema and Koquima, but that when they got to the 555 Bridge police fired teargas with the canisters hitting and injuring some of his supporters.
The police regional head said he was not aware of any injuries. However Politico confirmed that five people did sustain injuries during the clashes with the police.
Earlier in the morning the mayor’s supporters had assembled in four locations in the city with sounds blaring from their musical sets ready to welcome him.
One of the supporters, Kumba Gbondo, sounded defiant. Looking radiant in her traditional outfit, she told Politico: “nothing will stop us from welcoming our mayor. We voted him in and we are happy to receive him back into his city”.
In a meeting at his office prior to the mayor’s return, the police local unit commander Tankoro Division, Chief Superintendent David Sahid Koroma told the supporters that only five people would be allowed to enter the city with him and that any number above that would “face tough police resistance”.
One of the supporters, Christopher Ndoinjay who sustained injuries to his face during the clashes with the police, alleged that he was beaten by one Inspector Kabbie Kells Kharr, an officer who is currently under investigations in an unrelated incident of town mining. He also alleged that the policeman twice fired live rounds at the crowd with the bullet hitting one of his colleagues in his index finger. Khan could not be reached for a reaction.
Mayor Lamina was suspended in February pending investigations, on allegations of misappropriation of council funds. Allegations he dismissed as being “politically motivated”. The report of the investigations has still not been published.
(C) Politico 26/04/16
