Streets, markets , businesses and neighbourhoods in Freetown empty as another lockdown called by PPP takes hold

By Kabs Kanu

Freetown’s  streets , markets, businesses and neighborhoods are empty this morning  ; Shops  are closed and stalls of traders and hawkers have been idled by yet another lockdown to the city as people obey a stay- home call by social media activists angry with the anemic,  uncertain  and unsatisfactory state  of the Tripartite Committee investigations into last year’s rigged elections .

The leader of the radical People’s Power in Politics ( PPP ) , Mr. Abdul Will Kamara, in collaboration with other frayed political activists in the social media called for the lockdown , to coincide with the end of the mandated time for the Tripartite Committee which was supposed to have handed its recommendations to President.Maada Bio today.

Social agitators are displeased with statements and indications from ruling SLPP  officials, President Maada Bio and the U.S Ambassador to Sierra Leone , Bryan Hunt, that the outcome of the committee investigations will only lead to structures being set up to protect future elections from being compromised  and not a rerun of the June 24, 2023 elections , which international elections observer missions and the United States widely  accused the Elections Commission of Sierra Leone of rigging in favour of President Bio.

The activists, including Adebayor, are threatening to follow up this sit- home civil disobedience with massive demonstrations to take back their country from Maada Bio, if the recommendations from the committee are not pleasing to the Sierra Leonean people.

It appears like the Tripartite Committee did not submit its recommendations today as scheduled , after the opposition All People’s Congress ( APC ) suspended its participation last week because of the failure of the Elections Commission to clarify to the Committee how it arrived at the aggregate results it presented after long periods of requests by the international stakeholders , the opposition and citizens. The APC returned to the negotiations yesterday.

Today,  the U.S Embassy, one of the stakeholders involved in the investigations ,  urged the Committee to continue to work rapidly to develop comprehensive recommendations that would rebuild public trust in Sierra Leone’s electoral institutions.

Meanwhile, heavily armed troops continued patrolling the city today . Citizens have condemned the government for its show of strength with these armed forces at a time when international stakeholders are seeking national reconciliation and national unity to break the standoff in the country since last year’s disputed elections.