SIERRA LEONE COUP ATTEMPT: MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
By Kabs Kanu
There are so many contradictions behind Sunday’s heavy firing in Freetown.The more one looks deeply into this most dramatic and spectacular event, the more one is left with the suspicion that there are more questions than answers.
The suspicion of many people is that the SLPP( Maada Bio ) wants to abort Resolution 3 of the communique , which they have belatedly found to be a trap set for President Bio and the SLPP , and there are suspicions that the SLPP may be trying to find excuses for the disappearance of the many detainees they killed that they will not be able to account for during the investigations, which will put Maada Bio in serious trouble ( Extrajudicial killings) . Who dat nor know SLPP nar him go be fooled.
Every bad precedent in Sierra Leone was set by the SLPP. They staged the first coup in Sierra Leone. They introduced tribalism, thuggery and elections rigging in 1967. They were first to introduce the idea of a One- Party State in 1966. They also introduced bush war ( Ndorgborwusui) in 1982. They introduced the use of the poro devil in politics. I could go on and on and on.
Thank God they are calling it a security breach and not an attempted coup. They know that the international community has its own representatives in the country and had been watching them.
The whole thing on Sunday smells suspiciously like a stage-managed event . That is the suspicion of many Sierra Leoneans. We may be wrong and if it is discovered that we are, we will apologize, but a lot of things do not add up.
No sane person will attempt a coup in Sierra Leone at this time , knowing that the whole army is now mostly composed of one tribe, which makes it very possible that any putschists will be outnumbered and the coup foiled or overturned . Sierra Leone provides a different complex scenario and dynamics from other West African countries . Since everything under Bio is structured along tribal and regional lines, any armed attack on Bio has the potential of sparking a tribal war. Who , in his right mind, wants that ?
No coup will survive in present day Sierra Leone without international help with ammunition and lots of foreign troops. How much ammunition stolen from the Wilberforce Amoury could have sustained a coup without regular supply from outside ? Any coup attempt made without regular flow of arms and ammunition from outside the country would be tantamount to reckless endangerment. It will fail, with dire consequences , given Bio’s propensity for brutality .
The kind of heavy firing that lasted all night could also not have been easily quelled in the morning if it came from real coup makers. Our army lacks the capacity to neutralize such attacks so easily. There could have been a big struggle lasting days. After such heavy and sustained firing all night, the coup makers simply dropped their arms and fled. Where did they go ? And there has not been a heavy mobilization of troops to go after them? Where are all the people who were firing those guns, RPGs and bombs ? This should make Sierra Leoneans distrust President Bio with their own security. Where are the armed men involved in that massive fireworks assault on our capital on Sunday ?
Besides, if you understand military structure, it is not possible to break into the amoury because the locks are coded and President Bio is one of the holders of the code. Four people in all possess the codes. Somebody having the code had to surrender it before any break -in would have succeeded. So, was President Bio making a coup against himself ? A military man explained everything to me that it is not easy for a group of assailants to raid the amoury with any measure of success also because countries protect their ammunition dumps. Bio, of all people , had only three or four soldiers manning the amoury !!! If a strange force raided that amoury last Sunday, many lives would have been lost before they succeeded to snatch the weapons. Note also that arms and ammunition are separately stacked in different locations in the amoury.
Also, why is President Bio seemingly lying that he is posting from State House ? They forgot to turn off the site locator and it exposed them that Bio was actually posting from Ghana. Where is President Bio ?
Also, knowing Bio, if there was a real coup attempt and his soldiers got killed, and Bio was in town, he would have by now publicized himself going around examining the sites damaged ; visited the injured in the hospital and gone to console the bereaved families of those killed. What Commander -in- Chief can be so cold – hearted and uncaring ? Bio wey lek for knack chest so ? A vociferous and fussy Bio will survive such heavy firing and we do not see any showboating in public .
Also, coup makers and rebels burst into prisons to arm the convicts to help them fight.That is the reason they attack prisons and free the inhabitants. Simple combat strategy. Why on earth would anybody free prisoners and not use them to help them consolidate the coup ? Then, why all the pains to free them , knowing that they would be recaptured and some even killed by Bio’s troops who have a passion for shedding blood ?
Liberia ‘s Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe used these same fake coups to get rid of opponents like Thomas Weh Syen, Nelson Toe , Nicholas Podier , D.K.Wonseleaye and others. We all remember the fake Lt. Col. MMD Flanzhamitton assassination attempt on Doe with a 30 – caliber gun that became a joke in Liberia and made the jeep Doe said he was driving when he was attacked to be nicknamed ” 30 caliber.”That fake coup was intended to get rid of Dr. Amos Sawyer , Dr. Kesselly, Bacchus Matthews, Dr. Fahnbulleh and others and stall the 1986 elections . Flanzhamitton named them as sponsors of the attack but he was not convincing and nobody believed him and because he botched it and did not do a good job for which he was likely paid, an angry and disappointed Doe had him executed by firing squad.
Gnassingbe Eyadema used to do the same. Mobutu Sese Sekou used to do the same. Idi Amin used to do the same.
SLPP hates me because when any SLPP bird takes flight , I know already what is inside its stomach . We know that SLPP can lie and deceive like the devil.
Sycophants are asking that we wait for the investigations but many Sierra Leoneans do not trust the results of any SLPP investigations. If they can fake figures and steal the June 24 elections so brazenly and with such impunity , what else won’t the SLPP do to evade problems with the nation and the international community ? Bo make ah go eat me still mouthwatering Thanksgiving leftover Jollof rice .
Yes, there could be the slight possibility that we who doubt the so- called coup attempt could be wrong, but this is what happens when a government governs through subterfuge and deceit. Nobody buys easily into their gimmicks.
