10 Female Political Detainees and Karamoh Kabba Held for Opposing Census Bailed Yesterday
By Abu Shaw
Ten political female detainees and Mr Karamoh Kabba held in Freetown prison for questioning the legitimacy of the Mid-Term Census have been bailed.
The eleven political detainees from the main opposition APC party were all granted bail yesterday after spending nearly ten days behind bars. The 10 detained ladies, and Mr Karamoh Kabba who is the National Organising Secretary of the APC party, were ambushed right inside the Criminal Investigations Department CID in Freetown when they accompanied their APC Chairperson of the Eastern Region Madam Diana Finda Konomanyi to the police headquarters in Freetown in solidarity. Diana Konomanyi aka “Iron Lady” was invited on December 13, 2021, by the Inspector General of Police to be interrogated for her public objection to the illegal SLPP Mid-Term Census which started on December 10. It was during the questioning of Diana that these gallant women and Mr Karamoh Kabba were ambushed and subsequently arrested and detained. (Photo: The female detainees yesterday enjoying freedom at last. Mr Karamoh Kabba left, and Diana Konomanyi, 3rd left, also poses with her ardent supporters).
It was on that fateful Monday, December 13 that the failed SLPP government of President Julius Maada Bio finally showed its true misogynistic colours by making public its outrageous hatred for top female political leaders and women in general who have bravely stood up to say ‘Enough is Enough’ of the undemocratic rule of President Bio’s administration. Over 15 women, including the two most popular female politicians in Sierra Leone today, Diana Konomanyi and Madam Olufemi Claudius Femi-Cole of the Unity Party were intimidated and later arrested and detained for no justifiable reason/s that day. The hyper SLPP police even beat up one female APC supporter of Diana Konomanyi and she sustained serious facial injuries on the same Monday.
Madam Diana Konomanyi and Madam Claudius Femi-Cole, the leader of the Unity Party and Chairlady of the Consortium of Progressive Political Parties COPPP, were harassed and intimidated, and detained by the brutal SLPP police led by the most unprofessional Inspector General of Police in Sierra Leone’s history Mr Ambrose Michael Sovulla. It was while the dedicated women supporters in Sierra Leone politics were accompanying the gallant Diana Kononanyi – dressed in her red and white elegant APC party attire – that the brutal police fired tear gas at the peaceful crowd of women marchers in broad daylight much to the astonishment of eyewitness and even some sensible police officers who did not support what their idiotic colleagues had done opposed the teargassing. But the determined APC and other women marched on George Street singing the APC party song as Diana Konomanyi and Madam Femi-Cole strode on patriotically. (Photo: Femi-Cole, 4th, after she was bailed last week. And the other COPPP officials).
The failed SLPP government continues to disgrace itself every day in terms of human rights violations and lack of civil liberties in the country. Not a single day passes by today in Sierra Leone without the barbaric regime of President Bio unleashing intimidation and harassment on innocent citizens whose only crime is exercising their fundamental human rights. Citizens who peacefully protest against the government’s draconian policies and those who criticise bad governance are targeted by the SLPP government police. President Bio is ruling with a heavy hand, a nation where free speech and association are punishable by public beatings, detentions, and worse by death. But yesterday was a happy time when the APC female supporters were granted bail, thanks to Diana Konomanyi who stood with them in their hours of need. The women, who came all the way from Kono District last week to support Diana, were seen boarding a bus en route to Diana’s Freetown residence yesterday.
Yesterday after the women were bailed, this was what Claudius Femi-Cole wrote on her Twitter Page: “All the women and Karamoh Kabba are out on bail. That is the good news. Let me add that our entire justice system needs organisational overhauling and sanitising.” The Concerned Sierra Leoneans CSL also added their voice: “We welcome the release of the female supporters of the main opposition APC party. However, we hasten to remind Sierra Leone Police and President Bio that their arrest was illegal.”
