By Foday Morris
24 March, 2020
Fellow Citizens, many of us may have read, watched or heard the news that President Julius Maada Bio has declared a “State of Public Emergeñcy” in Sierra Leone. The good news is we have no case of COVID-19.
A State of Public Emergeñcy is the same as a simple State of Emergency which gives the government extra and broad powers to do any thing that would normally be deemed unconstitutional.
Such powers include, but are not limited to the arrest and detention of any citizen without probable cause. In short, such powers legitimize dictatorship for the period in question even it related to health.
In the Sierra Leone Gazette, and the correspondence to the Parliament of Sierra Leone, the President proposed a State of Public HEALTH Ermergency. However, when he made the declaration, the word HEALTH was omitted.
Do you know why?
It is because the president intends to use broad powers against his fellow citizens of the previous APC government.
In his declaration speech, the president deliberately made it clear that the SEO is not a lockdown.
Do you know why?
The next step is a dangerous and diabolic plan to place the country on a lockdown and arrest main opposition leaders, and anyone who disagrees with them.
As I write this, Sierra Leone has no case of COVID-19. However, the next step of the government is to announce that COVID-19 has finally entered the country.
What will happen then is that the government will get financial and other support from the WHO and other international partners.
MAADA BIO
Most importantly (for them), they will declare a Lockdown, and use the opportunity to arrest senior members of the main opposition APC party.
Fellow Citizens, I did not make this up. I have credible information from some people who work for the current government. They are citizens who do not want Sierra Leone to have any civil unrest or (God Forbid) civil war again.
Since Bio became president, many citizens have been arrested and detained on trumped up charges. Some have been relieved of their jobs (Sacked/fired) just because they support the previous government or are from the North West. There is so much more that has angered many citizens. Member a of the forces and many other citizens have fled the country and in self exile.
Let us put politics aside, and tell the government of President Bio not to lead us in a path that could lead us to war again. We may regret our silence.
“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
— Haile Selassie
Please read President Bio’s SOE Declaration Below.
Declaration of a State of Public Emergency byHis Excellency, Dr. Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone
Fellow citizens:
By the authority vested in me under Subsection 1 of Section 29 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991, Act No. 6 of 199, regar heding the declaration of a state of public emergency, it is my opinion that a situation exists which, if
allowed to continue, will lead to a state of emergency in Sierra Leone.
The Corona virus disease is a highly infectious disease that constitutes a public emergency of international concern
that has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation.
The rapid global spread of the corona virus poses great risk to human life and can cause enormous socio-economic disruption in Sierra Leone. This situation therefore requires
effective measures to prevent, protect, and curtail the spread of the corona virus diseases in Sierra Leone.
