By Umaru Fofana
The timing could not have been worse. Just days to their national delegates’ conference a key figure in the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party had his residence and his office raided by police. Of course it was an internal political party wrangling. Of course it was the obstinacy of the politician not to have turned in suspects being investigated by the police. But of course it was also a heavy-handed approach by a police force that is very trigger happy when it has to deal with anyone and anything involving the opposition.
On Tuesday, for the second time in three days, heavily armed police and detectives raided the residence and office of the former SLPP presidential candidate, Julius Maada Bio. He was not the target, the police have been at pains to stress. Rather they were looking for certain people against whom there had been a report of assault and malicious damage made by their fellow party member, Isatu Kabbah. She alleges that she was assaulted by supporters of the retired brigadier who also smashed the windscreen of her car.
It has to be said that Mrs Kabbah is, above anything else, a Sierra Leonean. A peaceful one at that. In addition she is the wife of a former president of our country. And she is the women’s leader of the very party whose members attacked her (vehicle). She can be disagreed with but certainly not disrespected let alone disgraced especially by her fellow party members. Never mind assaulted – verbal or physical. But I will return to the internal wrangling momentarily.
Now, Bio himself divides opinions almost in equal measure both within the party and outside of it. He has a groundswell of grassroots support which some elite elements in the party are scared or disdainful of. His supporters are as passionate about him as his critics are loathsome of him. Neither faction can make any serious impact outside of the party without the other. In plain speak the party cannot win a popular election if either side goes the opposite direction. And if their clamour over who leads the SLPP is all about outdoing and undoing the other faction with such hate, then they are being stupid.
It all must be sounding like music to your ears if you are a member or supporter of the APC party. And it arouses the suspicion that there are the invisible hands of people in state authority in all of this. Yes blame it on the party members themselves, after all they brought this upon themselves. But it does not rule out the wider possibilities. The Sierra Leone Police being what they are all too well known for – used as political tools by successive governments – you can bet your life that may not be farfetched. And Bio played into their hands.
Bio burned his fingers when he apparently failed to persuade or even force two of his close aides being sought by the Sierra Leone Police on allegations of assault and malicious damage. That action, or inaction, by him was wrong. It may have had to do with the internal bickering within the party but a law and order issue it also was. Violence in all its forms stands condemnable. And Bio’s continued silence and refusal to condemn outright his supporters involved in violence would lead one into thinking that they are doing so at his say-so. Rightly or wrongly. What is incontrovertible is that by not denouncing and renouncing such actions he is giving tacit scope to his boys to continue behaving as such.
The head of the criminal investigations department has told me this, and Bio himself confirmed it in a local radio interview, that an SMS text message was sent to the opposition politician regarding the turning-over of two of his “bodyguards” for questioning over allegations of assault and malicious damage. Agreed that that is a euphemistic lingo which our police use when they want to arrest and detain someone. If only Bio had heeded and turned those guys over, the allegation that he was harbouring arms and ammunition and “violent people” which the police used as a fig leaf to raid his premises so brutally could have been averted.
I use COULD advisedly. I do so because the notoriety of the Sierra Leone Police in dealing with especially the opposition is an open book that was published since Jesus was a boy. This feeling has only been heightened by this raid which bore all the hallmarks of Ugandan troops moving on a tipoff to arrest Joseph Koyn or even US Marines chasing the Taliban leader, Mullar Omar. Worse still, the police were too heavy-handed and trigger happy. Probably too bullish and foolish. As is typical of them in situations that require tact and not might. Searching all the nook and cranny of both premises. Like one journalist put it, they searched cupboard to cupboard, box to box, suitcase to suitcase and perhaps they scattered everything and everywhere with the false impression created that they were truly looking for something. Yes may be the rank and file officers who went there thought so. But certainly the bosses who sent them there knew it was a smokescreen.
Come to think of it, would the police have raided the home of a senior official of the ruling APC party in such dramatic fashion simply because someone either within or outside the party had alleged that there were arms and ammunition being hidden in their home or office? Unless that individual had fallen out with the establishment they would never dare.
Police intelligence must have been called into serious question if they genuinely believed that Maada Bio was keeping weapons in his private office or his residence without them having any inkling about it until a member of Bio’s party went and told them about it, as alleged. The fact that the allegations were made by someone with whom Bio has an open axe to grind should have made them treat them with caution. Unless the police themselves had an ulterior motive for the raid. The fact that they found nothing of interest has also impugned that intelligence – if it exists – of the Sierra Leone Police.
But back to the civil war in the SLPP. Even a child born yesterday appreciates the fact that it has cost the country more than it has the party by their sheer lack of holding the government to account not left to go on the prowl. Early this week I spoke with a senior member of the party who, like any other senior member of the party, has taken sides in the factionalism in the party. He sounded distraught at what is panning out in his party. But such was his honesty that he admitted to me that even if he were President Ernest Bai Koroma or a member of the APC he would not shed a tear at what’s going on and would also stoke things up. As they head out to Bo to discuss and not cuss, the party has a very daunting task ahead that will only get more difficult after the race depending on how they goad the process. But as one SLPP stalwart said to me, it is better to war-war now and jaw-jaw closer to the elections, than jaw-jaw now and war-war as 2017 approaches. We wait and see. Interesting times lie ahead. But the police will still prove crucial. And the way they handle things will make or unmake our democracy.
(C) Politico 15/08/13
