PICTORIAL : FLASHBACK March 21, 1967 : The day Brig. David Lansana aborted the swearing-in of Prime Minister Siaka Stevens at State House

April 19, 2019 Publisher and Chief Executive Officer KABS KANU ACTION NEWS, COMMENTARY, EXTENDED COVERAGE, Uncategorized 0

FLASHBACK :  Tuesday March 21, 1967. Despondent party members & supporters of the All Peoples Congress gathered outside the party’s headquarters after Brigadier Lansana had aborted the swearing-in ceremony of Siaka Stevens as Prime Minister and put him and the Governor-General under house arrest.

PHOTO CREDIT : JERE THOMAS

Sierra Leoneans give their recollections about that day :

Eva Roberts As a child of Liverpool Street on that day, is is etched in my memory. It was lights out and no one at the window.

Jeffrey Coker I was there too. Foot watin ar eat cam see speed for fen ose road. Ran from state house to Montague st. nonstop. Would have broken Carl Lewis’s record.

Vivian Stack-davies Wonderful That was a memorable day I was at work at the then SLTV studios getting ready for State House when martial law was declared. What a shock.Thanks for memory.

Malcolm Coomber I was a kid then but can remember these words “I swear to my mother’s breast, there shall be bloodshed”.

Mohamed Sanusie Bah A memorable and historical picture. I read and wrote about this very day and situation…”two days later junior non-commissined officers overthrew Brig. Lansana” and invited Lt.Col. A. J. Smith to lead the junta.
Israel Ojekeh Parper Snr One “BAD” memorable day. I can write ten books of that particular day – especially that 7pm order of “Masal Law”: I Sal soot”

Sekou Laddie Yansaneh Israel Ojekeh Parper Snr The next morning I heard that one of my friends Modupe Marsh who was standing next to me was hit and had died.

I ran all the way to the mortuary but he wasn’t there, then I went to the hospital and found him in a ward. He had just been operated on for a bullet wound which went from his front to his back on his right side. Thankfully it missed all his vital organs.

Chris my other friend who was standing next to me was hit across the his clavicle, near his neck. I found him also on the same hospital ward.

Marsh passed away in London many years ago. Chris lives in Maryland just a few minutes from me. We left Freetown on the same day and travelled to the U.S together in August 1969. In more than half a century, I don’t remember if we ever spoke about that fateful evening.

Till this day I have no idea how many people were hit and if any died.

Patrick Unisa Taylor I remember too well. We were innocently fighting, and even risked our lives, for what we believed was democracy aborted and fair play.

Margaret Fumilayo Jones MY HOUSE IS NEXT DOOR, MAYBE I WAS IN SCHOOL.I ONLY RECALLED THE SHOOTINGS THAT NIGHT. MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR BOCARI WAS SHOT RIGHT IN FRONT OF THAT APC OFFICE LATE THAT NIGHT BY SOLDIERS TAKING COVER INSIDE MAROON CHURCHYARD.
Joe Blell  
Juxon-Smith was invited by Officers mostly Majors (Blake, Kai-Samba, etc.) and they formed The National Reformation Council (NRC). It was a later Coup staged by Non-commissioned officers that brought in Brigadier John Bangura. This was the Anti-Corruption Revolutionary Movement (ACRM) led by RSM. Conteh and Rogers
 

 

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