By Mustapha Kamara Jnr
Young members of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) say they will demonstrate against police if they do not release their members.
On Saturday, the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) arrested nine young members of the party, after over 100 members of the grass root wing demonstrated at the US embassy in Freetown on Thursday.
The leaders of the embassy protest said they were implementing the resolution the leadership of the party had made against President Ernest Bai Koroma’s sacking of his vice president Samuel Sam-Sumana and his appointment of Victor Bockarie Foh to the position.
SLPP`s second highest decision making body, the National Executive Council, had resolved that the party would institute legal and parliamentary actions and also embark on an unlimited form of civil disobedience against President Koroma’s decisions if he did not reverse them in seven days.
Some senior officials of the party told Politico that the youths did what they [senior members] had failed to do. But a few others had frowned at the move, although the police`s action appears to be reuniting them.
The leader of the SLPP grass root, Joseph Austein Johnnie, told Politico on Tuesday after the arrest that they were planning a huge protest that would attract even international attention if the police did not release their members.
Johnnie condemned the arrest, calling it “unjustifiable and unpatriotic.” He said that they had demonstrated their democratic rights on issues affecting the democracy and good governance of the country and that their Thursday protest was peaceful.
During the protests, the grass root members submitted a petition to officials of the American embassy for the ambassador.
Sam-Sumana’s sacking last month has sparked an enormous constitutional controversy, leaving Sierra Leoneans even outside the country unsettled with protests having been reported in the US and England over the issue.
During President Koroma’s recent visit to the US, he was also received by similar protests.
Answering questions on the demonstrations abroad, a spokesman of the government said the people had the democratic rights to do so.
However, in Sierra Leone, prior to the grass root protest, police issued warning against any demonstration, pointing at the public health emergency.
Johnnie questioned the failure of the police to make the arrests during the demonstration, but only on Saturday when the nine members were at their homes.
On Tuesday, the party`s leadership weighed in on the matter through a press statement that describes the SLP as a “partisan outfit” which executes its function with “partisan colours at the behest of powers from above.”
“At the time of the demonstration, the SLP saw no rationale to effect arrest. It is therefore bewildering that the police have now chosen to raid the homes of people they suspect were part of the protest and to arrest them after the fact,” the statement signed by the party’s national secretary general, Sulaiman Banja Tejan-Sie, reads in part.
It adds: “While they were arresting our members for holding a peaceful demonstration on the grounds of the US Embassy, a rowdy crowd of ruling party supporters converged at Bottom Mango at Wilberforce and at the Lungi airport grounds, Sunday April 19th, 2015, singing and dancing in demonstration of their support for President Ernest Bai Koroma. None of these have been arrested for their act; which we entirely support as legitimate.”
When contacted, the head of police media, Assistant Superintendent Ibrahim Samura said he could not talk on the issue because he had no information. He also said the matter was with the Criminal Investigation Department, whom he referred us to. Repeated calls and text messages to the CID boss were not responded to.
But according to the national deputy secretary general of the party, Alie Badara Kamara, the nine members have been charged to court and they will start appearing today.
The grass root members say they would continue resisting President Koroma’s actions which they say are “unconstitutional.”
“As grassroots members of the SLPP therefore, we will continue to resist and protest until a constitutional order is restored in Sierra Leone,” Dwight Sheriff, president, western region student union wing of the SLPP, told Politico.
© Politico 23/04/15
