According to the Liberian News Agency ( LINA ), “Former Peace Ambassador and President of Liberia, Dr. George Manneh Weah, has called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to speedy investigate and bring to book the perpetrators of the recent violence in the Republic of Sierra Leone. ”
LINA went on to report that “The Liberian leader reaffirmed that peace and stability is a backbone for development in every nation and any attempt to undermine the peace of the region should face the full weight of the law.”
President affirmed : “They cannot destroyed lives of several police officers, civilians, property and go free. No, they should face the law, and I always say this when we go for ECOWAS convention that the peace of our region is very important and no one should undermine it. ”
Some people would say that they are not surprised at President Weah’s statement. They would ask, what else can you expect from African leaders in situations like this when all of them usually defend their colleagues in power because most of them are peas in the same pod— They have skeletons in their cupboards ? But in all fairness to President Weah, he cannot be classed in the same category as President Maada Bio. George Weah is a by far better and more democratic president; a leader who respects human rights, the constitution of his country and the rule of law far better than President Bio. But he seems to be misinformed about Sierra Leone under President Bio.
President Weah is talking as if lawless people just went on the streets without any just cause and performed violent acts without provocation by the government.
Let President Weah be informed, in case he does not know, that the August 10 , 2022 demonstration in Sierra Leone was much like like the April 14, 1979 demonstration in Liberia, and was staged to protest against uncontrollable rising food prices , serious economic hardship and corruption. The organizers –The People’s Power in Politics ( PPP) –planned a peaceful march but government security forces overreacted and opened fire on the demonstrators as was done in Liberia on April 14 . Even some of the police officers killed were murdered by their own officers through friendly fire. President Weah should take his time to watch video clips of the demonstration to see how the Sierra Leone Police overreacted like the late President Tolbert’s Police did in Monrovia on April 14, 1979, using repressive measures and live bullets on the unarmed protesters, which provoked the violence.
We, Sierra Leoneans, have noticed that some ECOWAS heads of state have a uniform mentality against public dissent , assembly and demonstrations . They speak like irrational beings that do not acknowledge the fact that the people have a constitutional right to peaceful assembly and demonstrations. Your security forces should never open fire on peaceful demonstrators because they are exercizing their constitutional rights, and if you do , you inflame the situation and create a rampage that could lead to unfortunate consequences.
We welcome the call by President Weah and other ECOWAS leaders for an investigation but we hope they will keep an eye on Sierra Leone to ensure that any investigation and trial of the accused are fair, impartial and credible and not used as a witch hunt against the opposition. We have a government that does not believe in the due process of the law or the presumption of innocence. Already, in response to the demonstration, government security forces have resorted to extrajudicial killings of perceived opposition supporters during nightly raids on their homes as reported by the Sierra Leone media, the BBC and some international news outlets .
We call on President Weah and concerned Liberians to read Sierra Leone newspapers and reports from the BBC and the international media on this crisis to apprize themselves of the true circumstances leading to the demonstrations. A lot of injustices, human rights abuses, wilful violations of the constitution and the rule of law are going on in Sierra Leone under this Maada Bio government, which have destabilized the country and put it on the edge of chaos and have the potential to plunge the subregion into another era of conflicts, if not stemmed .
We are sure that President Weah is aware that whatever affects Sierra Leone will affect Liberia. If Sierra Leone sneezes, Liberia will catch cold.
We therefore call on President Weah and ECOWAS leaders to be honest with the situation in Sierra Leone and help to curb the excesses and abuses of President Maada Bio, who is a replica of the late Presidents Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor, before it is too late.A stitch in time saves nine. KABS KANU.
