Fire burnt down the headquarters of Sierra Leone’s opposition party, the Alliance Democratic Party (ADP) on Tuesday morning .
ADP leader, Mohamed Kamaraimba Mansaray, said that the fire was caused by a petrol bomb which was thrown into their offices early in the morning.
Fire fighters managed to put out the fire, which started from the top floor of the building. The ADP leader said that property worth millions of Leones and valuable party documents were destroyed. The police are working to arrest those behind the incident.
Courtesy Airtel
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Soon, supporters of the opposition , anti-government social media commentators and government supporters were on each others’ throats as they started flinging accusations, in a country where nothing happens by accident and somebody, especially the President and the government. always takes blame for everything. Some social media commentators immediately accused the ruling All People’s Congress ( APC ) of deliberately burning down the office in reprisals for Kamarainba’s verbal attacks on the government.
Idrissa Conteh ( Atomic Pen ) wrote : “Kamaraimba has been a victim of endless attacks, arrests and persecutions at the hands of the APC administration and their supporters.The ADP leader has been very outspoken about the recent natural calamities in Freetown that have claimed over 1000 lives…..” He went on to say : “Opposition and civlised politics have been killed in Sierra Leone. The SLPP died long ago and one wonders what a ghost can do in a political race. All the pressure groups exist only in name. You have to be APC “paopa” for you to have a breathing space.”
Somebody agreed with him :
Joseph Fomolu Investigate or not Kamaraimba’s outbursts yesterday against the APC leader and government for the tollgate, hajjgate, and hardship inflicted on Sierra Leoneans may not have gone down well with the powers-that-be. Hence to burn down his party headquarter the following day/today.
While those against the government lamented what they believed that the ADP office was deliberately burnt down, many Sierra Leoneans questioned such a hasty conclusion without first verifying the facts. One contributor even accused Idrissa Conteh’s article of being myopic and mono focal.
Medomez Kanu Atomic, your pieces used to be of very high credence but this is gradually eroding as you have subjected your reports to a myopic and mono focal perspective.
Shollay Davies I have read through the thread of this conversation and hold the view that each one of you has a reasonable argument in respect of the fire acccident that gutted the Headquarter of the ADP Party but the fact can only be ascertained by a forensic fire investigaation as to the cause of the fire accident. Nontheless, one can still advance the argument based on records that most fire accidents in Freetown were caused by electrical faults especially in old buildings. The fire service is also needing much help to bring it to speed with the ever increasing demand for their service. This is why property owners or even tenants should as a matter of expediency take out an insurance policy against such hazards. The time of the blame game should be a thing of the past in Sierra Leone. We must start to look at issues dispassionately and act wisely.
Felix Marco Conteh Idrissa Conteh granted that the young man has been vocal holding the APC account lately which we all applaud…but it’s hasty, irresponsible and dangerous for one to conclude without knowing the facts that this may be the work of the APC. Even within the ADP, there have been tensions over the control of resources etc. How many times have we suspected officials in government setting their offices on fire to cover up their misdeeds…
As seen above, some Sierra Leoneans doubted the story very much and Editaye Temple said his investigative journalism proved that the fire was in fact self-inflicted.
READ BELOW :
BREAKING NEWS
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*Kamaraimba Sets Party Office On Fire, In A Bid To Attract Public Sympathy And Score Cheap Political Point?*
Following the August 29th, 2017 inferno at the # 13 Rawdon Street, Head Office of the Alliance Democratic Party (ADP), a petty trader hawking very close to where the incident occurred has intimated this writer that the whole incident was pre-meditated and auchenstrated by Mohamed Kamaraimba Mansaray, the embattled Chairman and Leader of the ADP, in a bid to attract public sympathy and score cheap political point ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
According to Martha Swarray, this is her premise “How could Kamaraimba states on AYV Tv, that they saw 2 young men with petrol bums very close to their office prior to the fire incident, without pursue them or raise alarm for the attention of us doing business in front of his office and it environs”? How did they know that it were petrol bums the 2 guys they claimed to have seen, were holding? Or is he trying to fool us?, she maintained, adding that the Sierra Leone Police and Fire Service should investigate Kamaraimba, in light of the aforementioned.
“Kamaraimba, is notoriously known for raising false alarm and stage managing clandestine events, only to solicit public sympathy and play cheap politics”. “If it is not fake allegations against the police of unfair treatment, it would be fire on his offices or toilet splashed on them. These are cheap and backward styles of politicking, thus lacks democratic credentials. He should refrain from such, because we are not fools”; Mohamed Sesay, a young man selling phones at Rawdon Street, where the fire incident took place, opined.
“I am calling on the investigating agencies to institute through investigation, in a bid to set the record straight, because it’s not good for Kamaraimba to have made such wild allegation, without substantial evidence, unchecked”, says Mabel O. Kamara.
©Editayo George Temple �� The Investigative Journalist
