The Sierra Leone Police have issued a press release explaining their own version of the assassination attempt by the Police/Army on the flagbearer of the All People’s Congress ( APC ) , Dr. Samura Kamara , yesterday at the Mile 38 checkpoint.
First of all, the Police statement contradicts eyewitness, video and audio reports on the scene , some by independent witnesses and citizen journalists. None of them reported seeing APC supporters removing their shirts and confronting the Police.
We know that Police all over the world lie to cover up their brutality against civilians or killings, as we see graphically even in an advanced democracy like the U.S.
We know that the Police headquarters in Sierra Leone will never own up to their politically-motived brutality , atrocities and murder against opponents of the government. The Police is always under the control of the government and they act on “orders from above “. What the President or his officials and pro-government police high command tells them is what they do. We learnt that the orders for Dr. Samura Kamara’s convoy to be stopped at the Mile 38 checkpoint came from above.
But let us assume for a moment that the Police version is correct. Did that warrant an armed attack with live bullets on a presidential candidate and his convoy ? What ever happened to professional crowd control techniques police and soldiers believably receive during training ?
The unlawful use of force by the police and the army is unacceptable. The Police and the Army are also subject to the law. They are not law unto themselves.
Firing live bullets at Dr. Samura Kamara’s convoy was sheer disproportional and unwarranted force and it typifies the Sierra Leone security forces under this human rights-abusing President, Maada Bio, as a gangster force that are not fit for purpose.
President Maada Bio is the secret hand behind all these excessive and brutal use of police and army power. You will never see him speaking against, condemning or taking action against police and army atrocities. Police brutality and killings fit into Maada Bio’s chereographed and coordinated plans to rule Sierra Leone through intimidation, brutality, bestiality and junta kamajor tactics.
The consolation for the Sierra Leonean people is that the international community is fully appraised of President Bio’s inhuman governance. The recent damning condemnation of the SLPP government by Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department in their reports on human rights abuses in Sierra Leone should give our people comfort that everything being done by President Bio is being recorded by the international community and one day he will face justice.
