Rights campaigner, Ibrahim Tommy has questioned the arrest of an opposition presidential aspirant under the Ebola emergency provisions.
It followed the arrest in Makeni on Tuesday of Alpha Timbo of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) who was charged with “Holding a public meeting without authority”. Police had alleged that Timbo held a meeting with around 50 other people at 5 Mabanta Road.
It came days after journalist David Tam-Baryoh was released after spending 11 days at the central prison on allegations also bordering on the Ebola emergency measures.
Police Local Unit Commander, Chief Superintendent Gibril Turay told Politico that charges against Mr Timbo were dropped even before he was arraigned before a court, after police allegations proved to be unsustainable and untrue.
He said Timbo’s version of events that he was merely distributing hand sanitisers when police stopped him proved correct.
Timbo told Politico that shortly after an interview on a local radio station in Makeni in which he spoke about Ebola and experimental drugs, curious crowds approached him as he walked to the SLPP party office. He told them that the drugs were not yet available and that he had discussed the matter with President Ernest Bai Koroma
At that point, he went on, he started distributing hand sanitisers to the crowd when police emerged and arrested 30 people who were later released.
The opposition politician has expressed happiness that the matter has been dropped saying “the police did the right thing”.
He said the police initially behaved professionally when they arrived at the scene “but I suspected that they came under pressure from above when they switched off all their phones as I was being kept at the police for three hours and I could not reach any of them”. Timbo said that at this point he started feeling “concerned”, but stressed he held “no grudges against anyone”.
Ibrahim Tommy of the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law said “it is unacceptable to arrest people without having fully investigated them” especially for an alleged offence that has no option of custodial sentence.
He said it had become a pattern to arrest people under the Ebola emergency regulations which he said did not bode well for law enforcement in the country.
“It is curious that a prominent figure like Timbo…got arrested for illegal gathering…[and] it is suspicious that he was released without being brought before a court” Tommy said. He urged law enforcement authorities to not be compromised or wrongly enforce the law.
“Law enforcement authorities must do better to assuage the fears of the public by performing their duties without fear or favour especially at a time like this when Ebola is wreaking havoc in the country” he said.
© Politico 19/11/14
