30th April 2020
The All People’s Congress notes with grave concern developments that took place yesterday at the Pademba Road Maximum Security Male Correctional Centre that led to the burning of government properties and loss of valuable human lives.
Our understanding is that there was a riot at the Centre and the security forces, including the heavily armed Presidential Guard and other security personnel rained live bullets on the prisoners and Prison Officers that the public thought were in one of the safest places to be in Sierra Leone. .
Without prejudice to any of the conflicting reports so far received from Government and media outlets, the APC notes with grave concern that some of the initial video footages that have made there way into the public domain show videos of known SLPP thugs like Tanibola that our sources tell us was never an inmate in that Correctional Centre. That he now found himself inside the Correctional Centre can only lend credence to the aspersions making the rounds on social and other media that this alleged prison riot was another dastardly ploy by the SLPP and its operatives to kill innocent civilians and inmates including senior members of our Party including Major Retired Palo CONTEH, Herbert George Williams, ABU Bakar DARAMY and AMADU Koita who at the time of the incident where in the custody of the security forces.
The APC is further appalled by the fact that armed security forces raided the home of Palo CONTEH, harrassed the occupants of the house and took into custody the innocent wife of our dear Comrade Palo CONTEH. The whereabouts of our Comrades have since remained unknown and all attempts by the leadership of our Party and the legal team to reach them have proved futile.
Reports making the rounds indicate that our comrades are currently being held under very inhumane conditions and the health conditions of some of them have deteriorated significantly.
The leadership of the APC wishes to make it known to President Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP Government that the APC will hold them singularly and collectively responsible if anything is amiss to our Comrades and of course for the innocent lives that were lost during the skirmishes.
The APC therefore demands immediate information on the whereabouts of our comrades, and access to them by our lawyers and leaders of our Party.
The APC leadership wishes to inform our development partners and the international community that the harassment and intimidation of the APC and its members has now reached a level that is unbearable. The leadership of the APC can no longer guarantee our partners that we can restrain our members that are seeking for justice and the protection of their fundamental human and basic rights.
We shall continue to consult with our members around the country and in the diaspora on this and related incidents that clearly threaten to undermine the peace and security of our beloved country that we have all fought so hard to uphold and protect over the years.
Long Live Sierra Leone.
Long Live the indomitable APC Party.
Aluta Continua.
Signed
Ambassador Alhaji Dr. OSMAN Foday Yansaneh
National Secretary General
APC
