The Jealous First Lady Orders the Arrest of Freetown Mayor, Winner of Bloomberg’s $1M Prize
By Abu Shaw
Jealousy and bad heart politics, the trademark of President Bio’s wicked SLPP government, continue to smear the good reputation of Sierra Leone.
The image of Sierra Leone has never been so tarnished as it is today under the purview of the failed ruling SLPP regime. The latest victim of President Julius Maada Bio’s brutal dictatorship is the respectable Mayor of the Freetown City Council FCC Mrs Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr whose planned arrest was ordered yesterday by the Sierra Leone First Lady Fatima Jabbe Bio alias ‘Mob Justice’. No justifiable reason or reasons were given why the SLPP government decided in a poorly machinated plan to apprehend the nationally and internationally revered Mayor of Freetown Madam Aki-Sawyerr. Sierra Leoneans in and outside the country are still shell-shocked when news filtered yesterday about the dubious planned arrest of Mayor Aki-Sawyerr, widely regarded as the smiling genius for her outstanding record in uplifting the people and developing the outlook of the City since 2018).
There was pandemonium at the Freetown City Council Head Office in the capital of Freetown yesterday when a gang of police officers stormed the Mayor’s 8th-floor office with the sole ambition to carry out Fatima Jabbe Bio’s unlawful arrest orders but the enlightened Mayor told them she was going nowhere until her lawyers were present. The unnecessary ambushing of the Mayor’s Office yesterday caused panic in nearby offices and people in the streets many of whom were seen shutting their businesses not knowing why dozens of armed police officers could raid the Mayor’s office. It was an embarrassment for the Bio presidency. Political observers believe there is a politically motivated undertone underneath the disgraceful ‘Orders from Above’ SLPP nonsense. This jealous execution from the Office of the First Lady comes days after the Freetown Mayor won a one million US dollars prize from Bloomberg Global Mayors Challenge in New York. (Photo: Fatima Jabbe Bio aka ‘Mob Justice’ is behind the planned arrest of Mayor Aki-Sawyerr).
After the irate police officers noticed the reluctance of Mayor Aki-Sawyerr to be forcefully taken away yesterday, they eventually and hurriedly released a press statement inviting Mayor Aki-Sawyerr to appear at the Criminal Investigations Department CID headquarters in Freetown today. Supporters of the main opposition APC party are determined to accompany their industrious Mayor to CID this morning because they suspect that the tyrannical government of President Bio is poised to arrest and detain the astute Mayor when she alights at the CID. Last night, one of the leading social media activists for the APC party called the Peoples Power called on all APC supporters to come out in numbers this morning to escort their beloved Mayor to the police headquarters. “We will take this undemocratic harassment and intimidation of our officials anymore from this failed junta regime,” Peoples Power audio warned.
Political observers have suspected a stint of jealousy from the dodgy Fatima Jabbe Bio and her corrupt crop of supporters simply because of the fame of Mayor Aki-Sawyerr nationally and internationally. “The corrupt SLPP government is simply jealous of the one million US dollars windfall the Mayor has won to improve targeted projects in the capital Freetown. We love the Mayor because of her hard work and the efforts she had made and continues to make to put Freetown and Sierra Leone on the map,” a resident in Freetown noted last night. The admirable work of the Freetown Mayor is a stark contrast to the image of President Bio whose tenure of office since April 4, 2018, when his violent-oriented and abysmal government took power, has nothing tangible to show to impress Sierra Leoneans and the international community at large. (Photo: Mayor Aki-Sawyerr and the police statement).
It all started yesterday afternoon when the Criminal Investigation Department CID of the Sierra Leone Police belatedly issued a press statement inviting the Mayor of Freetown to report to the CID today Friday 30th September 2022, to respond to allegations of obstruction of police duties and disorderly behaviour. It is not clear when these allegations against the Mayor were committed if at all. But reports say it may have happened a few weeks ago, or never happened in the first place. An eyewitness at the Freetown City Council premises yesterday disclosed that the government wanted to apprehend the Mayor by force, even though the police invitation had made it clear that the Mayor should visit CID today. There was a standoff at the City Council because police were there to arrest Mayor Yvonne Aki Sawyer, according to Foday Morris. (Photo: Mayor Aki-Sawyerr celebrated after she won the 1 million dollar Bloomberg prize in the US recently).
Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s orchestrated and planned arrest comes after her able Councillor at the Freetown City Council Mr Skeku Turay aka ICE T was arrested at the Lungi International Airport over a fortnight ago while en route to New York for the Bill and Melinda Gates Bloomberg Global conference. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr was infuriated at the airport when her FCC colleague was arbitrarily arrested and thereby prevented from travelling with her to America. The reason given for the stormy invasion of the Mayor’s office may be linked to Councillor ICE T’s arrest which was linked to the August 10, 2022 demonstrations organised by the Peoples Power in Politics PPP, a ridiculous reason that most Sierra Leoneans did not believe. It is reported that the video released by Mayor Aki-Sawyerr in which she told the world about the unjust arrest of ICE T that fateful night, maybe the main reason why the SLPP regime has decided to arrest the Mayor. Investigations continue.
Mayor of Freetown Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr Wins Bloomberg Global Mayors Challenge
Freetown, Sierra Leone, and its Mayor, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr have been announced as one of the winners of the Bloomberg Cities Global Mayors Challenge 2022. Freetown, Sierra Leone is among 15 winners that were announced on the Bloomberg cities website today, Thursday 22 September 2022. The other winners include Amman, Jordan; Bogota, Colombia; Batuani, Philippines, Hermosillo, Mexico; Istanbul, Turkey; Kigali, Rwanda; Kumasi, Ghana; Peterson, USA; Phoenix, USA; Rochester, MN, USA; Rotterdam, Netherlands; Rourkela, India; Vilnius, Lithuania; Wellington, New Zealand. By Concern Citizen.
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Sierra Leone police summon Freetown mayor over ‘disorderly behaviour’
Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 7:25 PM by © AFP 2022 Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr has had several run-ins with authorities in recent months.
Sierra Leonean police Thursday summoned the mayor of the capital Freetown for questioning over allegedly obstructing police work and “disorderly behaviour”, according to a letter seen by AFP and confirmed by the mayor. “I can confirm the police invitation letter and I plan to attend” the questioning on Friday, Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr told AFP by telephone.
The letter, from the criminal investigations department, accused Aki-Sawyerr of “obstruction to police duties” and “disorderly behaviour”, without providing further details. The summons is likely tied to an incident at the airport earlier this month. On September 17, the mayor streamed a live video on social media from Freetown International Airport, on her way to New York for an event coinciding with the annual UN General Assembly.
She claimed in the video that a city councillor travelling with her had been escorted away by airport immigration officers and handed over to the police, who said they had an arrest warrant for him accusing him of incitement over deadly protests that rocked the country in August.
Aki-Sawyerr said in the video that they had been about to board their flight when they were told that Sheku Turay, the city councillor who also goes by Ice T, was needed at the immigration office. “Half an hour later, I received a call that he had been arrested,” the mayor said in the video. According to eyewitness accounts in local media and on social media, the mayor went to the police station where Turay had been taken and an altercation took place there, before she returned to the airport and posted the video. Local media reported that the minister of local government on September 22 issued a separate summons to ask the mayor why she had travelled to New York without informing her “superiors” in advance. On Thursday, Aki-Sawyerr told AFP she was “on her way” to meet him.
The event she attended in New York was hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on September 20 and 21. A former finance professional with a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, Aki-Sawyerr was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2016 for her efforts battling Ebola in Sierra Leone.
Elected mayor in 2018, she has had a number of run-ins with authorities in recent months. Earlier this year, she was fined by the anti-graft agency and ordered to refund travel expenses for an allegedly unauthorised staff member, but denied any wrongdoing. Last month, she claimed the information minister and the presidential press secretary had falsely accused her of inciting the deadly August 10 protests. “This deliberate and continued action of making false accusations publicly has already led to constant attacks of me on social media and attempts of physical attacks on (Freetown City Council) property”, she wrote on social media.
Sierra Leone’s presidential election is scheduled for June 2023. Source: AFP Read more: https://www.legit.ng/world/africa/1495096-sierra-leone-police-summon-freetown-mayor-disorderly-behaviour/
