VOA Reports on State Department Lashing Out at President Bio for Mass Killings, Rights Abuses
By Abu Shaw in London (02/03/2022)
An investigation by the US State Department has uncovered human rights abuses, killings, corruption, tribalism, under President Bio’s govt.
President Julius Maada Bio’s SLPP government is at the centre of very serious allegations of crimes against humanity that have been unveiled by State Department investigators in which the Sierra Leone administration of the ruling SLPP has been accused of mass killings at the Pademda Road Prisons, in Makeni and other areas in the country.
Allegations of rife corruption, tribalism, economic hardship, the arbitrary arrests and detention of opposition political members, and other critics by the SLPP state security, were also mentioned in the US State Department’s historic findings on Sierra Leone since April 4, 2018, when the Julius Maada Bio presidency came to power. (Photo: Mr Alie Forster lying wounded in front of the Deputy Internal Affairs Minister Lahai Lawrence Leema’s residence in Freetown after his security guard shot Alie Forster in the left leg in an unprovoked attack. The Police Chief Sovulla standing, in yellow, at the scene. Poor Alie Forster was taken to prison and detained for nearly two years).
The outcome of these State Department findings has obviously proven to be a serious indictment of President Bio’s regime, a government that had always tried to sweep these heinous crimes against innocent people under the carpet. Little or nothing has been done so far by the Bio administration to investigate these heinous crimes committed by his own state security. Justice for the victims has been delayed. But thanks to the vigilance and persistent reporting of these human rights violations by patriotic Sierra Leoneans on social media fora and in newspapers, the international community is now aware of the barbarism and autocracy of President Bio’s violent-oriented SLPP government against the innocent Sierra Leoneans who were merely exercising their democratic rights.
Critics of the SLPP government have always been targeted by the SLPP police headed by the Inspector General of Police Ambrose Michael Sovulla, the most unprofessional police boss to ever grace the shores of Sierra Leone. Peaceful protesters are forbidden and punished. Many have been murdered in cold blood by the SLPP police. No civil liberties are enjoyed by Sierra Leoneans under President Bio. Even though the useless Millennium Challenge Corporation MCC, ironically sponsored by the US, has given passing scorecards to President Bio on Civil Liberties! Police brutality is the order of the day. Sierra Leone under President Bio is worst than a Communist State, where citizens have no right to exercise their fundamental human rights as enshrined in the democratic governments. (Photo: President Bio, left, his corrupt Chief Justice Babatunde Edwards, centre, and the detained political leader Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray on ridiculous rape charges designed to silence him).
This was how the Voice of America VOA radio revealed to the wider international community the startling information investigated by the US State Department about President Bio’s Sierra Leone. The VOA report is as follows: “This is news hour from the Voice of America. The United States Department has lashed out at the SLPP-led government for several human rights cases of abuse and violations in its 2020 Human Rights Reports. The Record highlights several lapses committed by countries by their governments across the world in 2020. In Sierra Leone, the States Department highlighted a series of human rights concerns including unlawful and arbitrary killings by government agents.
“Harsh prison conditions, serious acts of corruption, unlawful arrests and detentions, and oppression against opposition supporters. For example, the riot breakout on April 29, 2020, at the Pademba Road Correctional Centre in Freetown led to 31 fatalities including a Correctional Officer and thirty inmates. And 32 Correctional Officers and twenty-one inmates sustained injuries from live ammunition used by security officials. So in July 2020, security forces allegedly killed individuals in Makeni who were protesting against the government’s relocation of a power generator and transformers from Makeni to Port Loko District to support the Lungi Airport operations using tear gas and live ammunition in response to stopping the protests.
“Prison Conditions – the country’s 21 prisons designed to hold 2,375 inmates are now holding 3808 as of August 2020. The most crowded is the Male Correctional Centre at Pademba Prisons designed to hold 324 inmates but it held 1470 individuals at that time. This leads to the spread of sicknesses and deaths. According to the SLCS Report, 53 prisoners in detention facilities die of malaria, respiratory infections, skin infections, hypertension, sickle cell diseases, and typhoid fever. Also, in July, Report says security personnel forces allegedly killed individuals in Makeni who were protesting against the government’s relocation of the power generator and transformers from Makeni to Port Loko District to support the Airport operations using tear gas and live ammunition in response to stop the protest. (Photo: The dark and dilapidated Pademba Road Prisons).
Impunity and Minimum Wage – Impunity remains a significant problem in the security forces, notably in the Sierra Leone Police. Observers noticed that police lack training in crowd control and human rights topics. While there are serious issues about the national minimum wage, there are no statutory definitions of overtime wages to be paid if an employee’s work hour exceeds. For the VOA, this is David Snow reporting,” the VOA report ends. In a related development, the Organiser newspaper believes the US State Department findings were very instrumental in convincing President Joe Biden to send the US Congressional Delegation to Sierra Leone. The 21-man US Congressional Delegation arrived in Sierra Leone last month and held talks with various internal stakeholders including the opposition political parties to abreast themselves with the prevailing situations in Sierra Leone.
Led by the New York representative Gregory Meeks, who is of Sierra Leone origin, the Congressional visitors also discussed with the SLPP government and met President Bio on issues about democratic governance in the country. Also making the delegation was the popular Democratic Congressional Representative Ms Ilhan Omar of Somalia origin. After their findings on the ground, the people of Sierra Leone came to the conclusion that the truth has been told and the US delegation had left Sierra Leone with the full knowledge of the present state of affairs under President Bio. Moreover, the US State Department findings played a major role in why President Biden invited the Mayor of Freetown Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr to address the US Democracy Forum on 9-10 December 2021. President Bio was never invited to join the other world leaders who participated in the US Democracy Forum. That was obviously to show the writings on the wall for the failed Bio presidency.
