Member Stabbed, Police Fails To Act
By Hasbin Shaw in Freetown, Sierra Leone
With less than 12 days to the hosting of Sierra Leone’s general elections, the National Grand Coalition (NGC) party is not mincing words accusing the Sierra Leone Police of bias and targeting of its supporters when investing matters relating to political violence.
The Campaign Manager of NGC, Sulaiman Banja Tejan-Sie Esq., told a news conference in Freetown on Friday, February 23, 2018, that the Grand Coalition party has reported several incidents of election violence and intimidations against their supporters to the police, but they are not investigating their complaints.
He said that the party supporters have suffered violence and intimidation from members of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) in the Western Area, Mile 91, Lungi, Magboroka, Masiaka, Matotoka, and Masimira, among others, “and these issues were reported to the police but the police did not follow up the reports nor investigate them”.
In stating the various incidents of electoral violence and intimidation carried out by members of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party, the Campaign Manager said, “As of this morning, I was called by my chairman in Mile 91 that the house of the party campaign manager in Mile 91 has been set on fire and he was also attacked. As we speak, they are filing in a report at the Mile 91 Police Station and no arrest has been made.”
“Also on Wednesday, one of our supporters was stabbed in the leg in Mile 91, this matter was reported and no arrest has been made. There has been consistence intimidation of our supporters in Magboroka and Matotoka.”
Mr. Tejan-Sie alleged that when their supporters reported the incident to the police, they failed to follow up the report or investigate them, adding, “But when supporters of the ruling party (APC) file in a counter-report, the police will immediately arrest their supporters and incarcerate them.”
He also said, “A typical example of this is in the Western Area (in Moyeba and PWD), when Alhaji Kamara, a NGC supporter, was arrested by APC under the pretest that he was enquiry about the details on the Voter ID Card of their party members. Mr. Kamara is still in police custody about four days now, contrary to the constitutional provision of this country which state that for offences like this, a person will not be detained for more than 72 hours.”
According to him, in Waterloo and Tombo, the police detained a supporter of NGC, identified only as Jalloh for days before he was released.
“As we speak, 10 or 12 of our supporters were incarcerated at the Masiaka police station and charged to court they made their first appearance on Thursday. They were denied bail. So, 10 of them were remanded and they will be making their second arraignment on March 1, 2018. The incidents following their arrest was reported to the police, that they were attacked, some of their houses burned down. The police did not investigate nor do they make any arrest. But the following day, the police went there and arrested their supporters on the basis of counter-report made by APC supporters,” he explained.
Tejan-Sie added, “We find this trend very unethical for our democracy. We call on the government to ensure that all state actors, as we are going to elections, stay neutral especially the police and the magistrates,” he said, adding “We expect them to be neutral as they investigate and allow the way of justice to prevail. We do not believe that intimidation and violence attacks on our supporters will usher in free, fair and transparent election.”
The Grand Coalition says it is calling on the government to make sure that the election violent incidents against the party are investigated across the country and ensure that those involved are brought to book.
“For our part, we have always appealed to our supporters to refrain from violence,” he said.
The Head of the Police Media and Public Relations Unity, Superintendent Ibrahim Samura described the allegations as unfortunate.
“The police don’t investigate political parties; we investigate individuals,” he said. According to the police spokesperson, the police received complaints from NGC, Coalition for Change, Sierra Leone People’s Party and All People’s Congress, and they are investigating these matters. “We have many files relating to violence,” he said, “To say that we are bias, it’s not true. We are looking into these matters.”
The Campaign Spokesperson of NGC, Dr Julius Spencer said that they had a discussion with the top ranked police officers in Freetown and the impression that they gave was that they are going to ensure that things are done fairly. “But the officers on the ground seem to be behaving in certain ways that are not in line with what their seniors told us,” he said.
