One youth was allegedly shot to death at the All People’s Congress ( APC) office in Freetown this morning as Police opened fire on protesters as they gathered to march to the Elections Commission to register their rejection of illegal electoral procedures being planned to be used by the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) during Saturday’s General Elections in Sierra Leone.
The APC called the demonstration to press home their demands for the Elections Commission of Sierra Leone ( ECSL) to release voters registration data and to use manual counting and tallying of votes ( Instead of electronic, which is subject to manipulation ) as well as do the tallying at district level.
The demonstrators should have been led by the APC presidential candidate, Dr. Samura Kamara and other leaders of the party who were supposed to have handed their protests to the Electoral commissioner, Mr. Mohamed Konneh, whom they have asked to resign.
Surprisingly however, the APC leaders were nowhere to be seen to lead the demonstration as supporters on social media kept enquiring about their whereabouts. It was later speculated that they might have been held somewhere by the Police to prevent them from hooking up with the protesters at the party office. Also, it was reported that the Secretary General of the APC, Attorney Lansana Dumbuya, who made the public appeal last night for APC supporters to protest nation-wide , had been arrested and detained at the CID. Cocorioko is trying to confirm the story .
Meanwhile, social media videos have shown the anti-ECSL protests going on in some parts of the country, especially Port Loko.
DISCLAIMER
Despite the alleged killings, the blood scene on the ground and in the party office is fake. It is not real blood. THE Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer has already recanted the claims of blood flowing from the incident. Some extremists may have used some red colored substance to create the impression of a bloodbath.
As a credible newspaper that is against the dissemination of fake news, we condemn the extremists who splattered the blood-like red substance at the party office and we hope even as they mourn the death of their worthy comrades, they must condemn the act and dissociate themselves from it.
ONE OF THE PROTESTERS KILLED BY MAADA BIO’S SECURITY OFFICERS
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