By Kemo Cham
A spokesman for the Sierra Leone Police has confirmed that they prevented opposition leader Samuel Sam-Sumana from entering Port Loko on Sunday because he didn't have clearance to do so.
Sam-Sumana, a former Vice President and former presidential candidate of the C4C party in last year’s election, was visiting the northern town on Sunday evening when he and his entourage were prevented from entering.
He was reportedly scheduled to watch a football match at the Old Port Loko Mini Stadium.
Sergeant Paul Hassan Turay, spokesperson for the Police in the North-west region, said they got intelligence of a planned political procession along the Pot Loko Highway and that they had not received any prior information authorizing such.
Turay said that when the intelligence reached the AIG northwest, he consulted with the Deputy Inspector General of Police who ordered them to prevent the politician from entering.
Sources told Politico that all three major points of entry into Port Loko town were barricaded by the police and Mr Sumana's attempt in all two points proved futile, with the exception of Malaykuria Junction along the Conakry Highway where the politician decided to walk his way leaving behind his vehicle after failing to persuade the police to let him in.
The source narrated that as he went along, a crowd of onlookers grew bigger behind him.
It is not immediately clear at what stage or why the police decided to fire teargas.
The incident reportedly happened between the hours of 4 and 6 pm on Sunday.
A Port Loko based reporter told Politico that up to seven rounds of teargas were fired.
The source said Sam-Sumana was hidden in a shop away from the police before he was subsequently moved out of the town.
Sergeant Turay neither confirmed nor denied that the police fired teargas. He however confirmed that they did prevent the politician from entering the town on the orders of their regional commander, stressing that they needed prior information to provide him proper security.
The Bai Bureh Warriors of Port Loko town and the Freetown-based FC Johansen were playing a friendly match at the Old Port Loko Mini Stadium.
"Sam-Sumana wanted to come and watch the game without clearance," said Sergeant Turay.
"As a senior political figure, he needed to inform the police so that we could put security measures in place. It was also for his own security and safety," the police spokesman added via a telephone interview.
Sam-Sumana served as Vice President of Sierra Leone from 2007 to 2015 when he was controversially sacked by then President Ernest Bai Korona as a result of a power struggle within the then governing All People's Congress party.
He subsequently cofounded the C4C under whose ticket he ran for the presidency in the 2018 general elections and emerged a distant fourth in the presidential race.
In January, the former Vice President was again on the spotlight after his security details were withdrawn by the police who said he wasn't entitled to personal state security.
© 2019 Politico Online
