The Chairman of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), John Oponjo Benjamin has blamed the police for the standoff that took place between the president’s motorcade and his party's flag bearer Julius Maada Bio a few weeks ago.
Speaking to pressmen at the party's headquarters in Freetown, the SLPP chairman said the police had earlier issued a press release claiming that Mr Bio was stopped at Upgun which, he said “they never did”. He said they allowed the opposition challenger to continue with his motorcade on the presumption he would have been out of the scene before the president's motorcade arrived but that the reverse happened and the police ended up blaming ‘’our flag bearer for their own mistake.’’
The SLPP Chairman said a similar incident had occurred on the day of their nomination for presidential and vice presidential candidates in which he said the police were fully aware of the fact that their supporters would be rallying through Siaka Stevens Street to the National Stadium but they went to direct the president’s convey towards the same street by the Cotton Tree ‘’subjecting our president to risk’’ which he said was also a blunder on the part of the police.
Benjamin also raised concern about the press release issued by the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) in connection with the incident between President Koroma and the SLPP flag bearer. He said the PPRC didn’t contact any of the members of his party to get their own side of the story which ‘’is against the rules of natural justice and undermines the neutrality of PPRC.’’ He said that when their office was attacked and their women ‘’raped,’’ the PPRC never came up with a press release condemning the act but that they issued one this time ‘’to denigrate the image of our presidential nominee and distract him from his very successful campaign trail.’’
Meanwhile, PPRC’s public relations officer, Lucien Momoh and head of police media, Assistant Inspector Ibrahim Samura declined to comment when contacted by Politico.
(c) Politico 25 October 2012
