CONCERNED SIERRA LEONEANS LIVING IN THE DIASPORA.
It has come to our notice that there are certain plots underway to forcefully deprived Rtd. Major Alfred Paolo Conteh of life to liberty, in order to harm him and/or stage his extermination under some unscrupulously disguised scenes.
We have followed with keen interest, recent events and developments back home in Sierra Leone particularly the agitations of citizens demanding that their fundamental human rights that has been continuously violated by state actors be respected by the various agencies of Government under the Presidency of Julius Maada Bio.
We have also studied the circumstances and debates around a recent peaceful university students of Limkokwing college of science and creative technology protests, which was disrupted unfortunately, by a dispatch team of police officers and military men who moved to the scene on orders of government officials.
We have also monitored proceedings of the various judicial panels of inquiry instituted by the SLPP Governments in respect of the widely condemned police atrocities against citizens of our country, From Tonko Limba, to Mile-91, to Tombo, to Goodrich, to Pademba Road, to Makeni etc. Yet still the SLPP government of Julius Maada Bio
has failed to make all these findings public.
Through an instruction from government officials for the removal of the Makeni generator, we saw state security apparatus (police and military personnel) who are supposed to protect lives and property moved to the scene on orders from a government minister to shoot at an open assembly of peaceful and unarmed citizens/protesters.
The SLPP bio administration’s use of state security officers is authoritarian. Such aggressive tactics and excessive force should have no place in today’s democratic modern society. This is a reality we cannot continue to accept.
Worrisomely, we have learned that many promoters of human rights groups that are calling for civil protests are now being hounded and intimidated by the SLPP Government through its various agencies; the Immigration Department seizing passports and profiling citizens not to leave the country is a violation of their fundamental human rights; the security agencies trailing and arresting citizens who are very critical of this SLPP administration, is unacceptable in any democratic society.
The SLPP government through it various MDAs are freezing opposition members accounts using the Sierra Leone commercial Bank, which is the Central Bank of Sierra Leone and courts among others – even while a panel that is expected to heal the wounds of victims of police brutality is supposedly ongoing. This is a case of adding insult to injuries.
But what is more disturbing now, and for which we now have decided to write in respect of all the ongoings, is the alleged plot to forcefully deprived Rtd Major Alfred Paolo Conteh of his fundamental human rights, and possibly exterminate him.
It has become urgent that we sound this very important note of serious advice to the SLPP Government of Julius Maada Bio; that NOTHING MUST HAPPEN TO RETIRED MAJOR ALFRED PAOLO CONTEH!
We observed footages of how men of the Sierra Leone Police Force and Presidential guards on surreptitious orders opened fire on him and others at the April 15th Pademba Road Massacre.
We also recall how men of the Security forces of the State laid siege on the court premises during the just recent treason trial that is now abandoned by the Government, because they cannot proved their case beyond reasonable doubt, and he was exonerated by a panel of jurors on all those flimsy treasonable charges against him. Rtd. Major Alfred Paolo Conteh was forcefully taken again on the day he was exonerated and returned to detention.
After several court appearances, the Prosecution team headed by the sacked Attorney General couldn’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused (Rtd. Major Alfred Paolo Conteh) had the preconceived guilty mind to Commit treason.
There was no seeming intention established throughout the trial. Thus, the jury found him not guilty and has exonerated him on all charges of treason. From the onset we knew that he was innocent, and we continue to stand by that.
However, lets it be known that, Major (Rtd), Alfred Paolo Conteh was found ‘Not Guilty’ to any treasonable offense, a bail must be granted to him now on those two lesser gun charges.
The current political motivated charges that the judge find Rtd Major Alfred Paolo Conteh guilty on are unlawful Gun Possession, which is bailable as a first time offender, and a very senior citizen in that regard who have served his country to the best of his ability, and he does not deserve this unfair treatment borne out of political spites.
We want to warn that the SLPP Government of President Julius Maada Bio must ensure to do everything possible to protect the life of Rtd. Major Alfred Paolo Conteh.
We identify with pain that Rtd. Major Alfred Paolo Conteh has been restricted to interface with his family members and closed friends for close to a year already, through onerous bail conditions from a court trial that has not proven any wrongdoing on him till date.
We hereby demand that the charges be dropped for want of proof and the bail veils lifted forthwith, as it is causing unwarranted and needless discomfort for his family, away from whom he had been taken and held without any rational cause.
We are hereby drawing further international watches on this case, as it must not become another State murder.
The following names are on our lists, should anything happen to Rtd. Major Alfred Paolo Conteh:
–
President Julius Maada Bio
– Professor David Francis (Chief Minister)
– Priscilla Schewzers (The former disgraced sacked Attorney General and minister of justice)
– Adrian Fischer (Former disgraced sacked Prosecutor DPP office)
– Lahai Lawerence Leema (Deputy Minister of Internal affairs) and
– Detective Superintendent M.K. Alieu.
#freepaolonow #freethementor #Paolomustfree #freepaoloconteh #Justiceforpaoloconteh — with
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