President Bio’s Thugs Besiege Parliament and Attacked APC MPs Leaving One in a Coma
By Abu Shaw
The House of Parliament was desecrated yesterday again by SLPP thugs who stormed the Chamber and unleashed violence on opposition MPs.
Many parliamentarians of the main opposition APC party were violently attacked with stones by hundreds of SLPP party thugs who had unceremoniously entered the House of Parliament and besieged the MPs like a war zone much to the chagrin of the parliamentarians and others present and the entire country. In the melee, the SLPP thugs stoned APC parliamentarians thereby leaving many wounded and one seriously, and the seriously injured APC MP was left unconscious as a result. The scenes yesterday at the House of Parliament, where members of parliament were scheduled to debate the dubious SLPP government Proportional Representation Bill were likened to a horror blockbuster movie. This was a clear attack on the fragile democracy that continues to germinate in Sierra Leone thanks immensely to the tyranny of the failed SLPP government of President Julius Maada Bio. (Photo: Injured APC MP Alusine Conteh lying after he was attacked by the SLPP thugs).
Besieging the House of Parliament yesterday by SLPP bandits was not the first time this terrible occurrence had taken place. It happened a few months into the Bio presidency in 2018 when the State House ordered the SLPP police to forcefully remove ten legitimately elected APC party parliamentarians from the House leaving many of the APC MPs ambushed to sustain serious beatings and injuries. And the 10 APC MPs were quickly replaced by 10 ruling SLPP party officials who were defeated in the 2018 general elections. A bogus SLPP court had ordered the removal and replacement of the MPs, how ridiculous. Then, President Bio forcefully installed the illegitimate Speaker of the House Dr Abass Bundu in the country. That sad chapter is on record and every internal and external stakeholder is aware of the desecration of parliament by the SLPP government in 2018. The chaos in parliament yesterday is just a continuation of the undemocratic agenda that the Bio presidency continues to introduce in Sierra Leone since April 4, 2018, when they came to power. (Photo: SLPP thugs invaded the House of Parliament yesterday).
Yesterday’s shame started as parliamentarians gathered in the House in the morning to debate the controversial Proportional Representation Bill dubiously introduced by the Bio presidency without following the proper procedural route. The opposition APC MPs have vowed as a consequence to throw this dubious PR Bill out of parliament as it is designed to disenfranchise millions of Sierra Leone voters in the northwest in the 2023 elections. The SLPP PR Bill is proposing that only voters who have been registered by the SLPP-controlled National Civil Registration Authority NCRA should be allowed to vote next year. This position has been widely criticised by the opposition MPs and all right-thinking Sierra Leoneans because citizens know that if this SLPP PR Bill is endorsed, many voters would not participate in the electoral process thereby giving an undue advantage to southeasterners and by extension to the failed SLPP government of President Bio. And yesterday was the day that was slated for another vital debate on the PR issue and knowing the importance of the Bill, the SLPP police and thugs were deployed to threaten and force the APC MPs to succumb.
Violence ensued after the SLPP thugs had realised that the APC MPs would not support such a draconian and undemocratic Bill. All hell broke loose in the House of Parliament when the SLPP thugs, in their hundreds, stormed the chamber and started making threatening remarks and suing unprintable tirades against parliamentarians of the opposition APC. The invasion of the SLPP thugs immediately forced all the APC MPs, who were clearly scared for their health and safety, to leave the Well of Parliament and eventually assembled outside away from the SLPP bandits. Only the APC parliamentary opposition leader Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah, in his brave posture, remained inside the House with of course the other MPs from the ruling SLPP party including the SLPP Speaker of the House Dr Abass Bundu. It was like a scene from hell when President Bio’s thugs behaving like Kamajors in civilian clothes suddenly besieged the House of Parliament much to the astonishment of other Members of Parliament in the empty Well. The SLPP thugs were forcefully seen occupying the top deck of the chamber and making loud noises and trading insults. (Photo: Empty Parliament yesterday as Chericoco, in white, stood behind his computer ready to defend democracy).
After the PR debate had been stonewalled, the SLPP thugs started physically attacking the APC MPs by throwing stones at them resulting in injuries and leaving one APC MP Honourable Alusine Conteh of Constituency 125 in critical condition battling for his life. The SLPP police officers who surrounded the House were initially seen arresting the SLPP thug who actually threw the big stone that hit the APC MP Hon Alusine Conteh rendering him unconscious. No sooner had the thug been arrested by the police, than he was immediately allowed to go scot-free by the SLPP police in the full glare of the eyewitnesses. Citizens present were appalled at the one-sided behaviour of the police and citizens could be heard accusing the police of colluding with the SLPP thugs to attack and injure the APC parliamentarians. Reports say the police did nothing to protect the APC MPs who were attacked in broad daylight by the SLPP bandits. And for the SLPP police to free the thug who made the APC MP unconscious did not go down well with the public. A video by Voice of Rokel Media Empire Sierra Leone Media ‘Wan’ Tagmen Press was live at Parliament yesterday zooming the incident on social media.
The Leader of the APC opposition Hon Chernor Bah aka Chericoco stood tall and expressed serious concerns about their safety. Chericoco commented on the SLPP thugs: “These are not normal visitors we are not safe we are not comfortable. It is worthy to note this is supposed to be a very important deliberation. Several elements of the proposed Public Elections Act 2022, relating to voter registration. Clause 13(1) (a)(i), states that “There shall be a national register of voters to be known as the “Register of Voters” which shall contain a national identification number….” That is to say, the proposed bill intends to make it a mandatory requirement for all prospective voters to have a National Identification Number NIN before they could be allowed to register to vote in the June 2023 general elections. If the SLPP wishes to amend the Constitution it should come before Parliament with the appropriate instrument. Such an important instrument must be exhaustively dealt with. This is what the SLPP does not want, to exhaustively deliberate this highly controversial bill. And so they have imported thugs to force the APC out so that they could have their Paopa way.”
Most members of the public, including a few Civil Society Organisation CSOs, some media outlets, and all the APC parliamentarians, have expressed grave concern that such a requirement will disenfranchise a considerable number of voters. Yesterday’s parliamentary proceedings had some serious exchanges between the Speaker and Chericoco who did excellently well to warn the SLPP government that there would be no rubber stamping in parliament again. Observers say Chericoco was the man of the moment yesterday as he stood up against the SLPP bullies in Parliament. He did not give the ruling SLPP parliamentarians a breathing space. The APC Parliamentary leader Chericoco was articulate and he presented his facts and figures correctly. Speaker Bundu finally noted: “I direct that the Government side ensures that the Gazette publications be done properly.” The leader of the opposition Chericoco eventually reminded the Speaker to ensure that the Chief Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Kenewui Konneh does the needful for the newly elected APC MP Jawah Sesay of Sambaia Bendugu Constituency 056 to be sworn in before the next adjourned date.
