Tomorrow’s Protests Force Jittery President Bio to Bribe Stakeholders & Orders Police Violence
By Abu Shaw
Tomorrow’s imminent August 8 massive demonstrations nationwide by suffering Sierra Leoneans have sent panic and worry in the corridors of SLPP power.
Organised by the Peoples’ Power in Politics, the PPP is determined to teach President Julius Maada Bio a bitter lesson he would never forget. The failed President Bio who is presently on a private holiday visit in London with his entire family is having the worst experience of his life as Sierra Leoneans back home have vowed to commence tomorrow’s protest to highlight the untold hardships and barbarism continuously unleashed on the citizens due to the maladministration of the corrupt SLPP regime. The people of Sierra Leone are now fed up with the nonsense and have vowed to remind President Bio through the demonstrations starting today of his catastrophic government that continues to exacerbate the suffering of the majority of the people.
The protests will commence tomorrow morning by firstly having a massive sit-down strike at home to be followed by another sit-down strike at home on Tuesday, August 9. Then on Wednesday, August 10, 2022, the demonstrators will take to the streets to vent their anger against bad governance and the SLPP government’s undemocratic rule. The protesters have also organised to continue the protests on the streets until President Bio addresses the nation on the burning issues affecting the electorates. Sources close to the People Power in Politics PPP have confirmed that the demonstrations will continue unabated until President Bio’s corrupt SLPP administration is removed from power by peaceful means. (Photo: Police Chief Fayia Sellu).
The unpredictability of the August 8 nationwide has alerted the jittery SLPP government and through their violent police, under the tutelage of the new Inspector General Mr Emmanuel Fayia Sellu, President Bio wants the security forces to pounce on anyone found protesting. However, police sources have confirmed that the new Inspector General of Police IG Fayia Sellu has other ideas. The IG is reported to have warned his police officers to be law-abiding and asked them to protect the demonstrators instead and that any officers found intimidating to the citizens would face the full force of the law. IG Fayia Sellu’s positive stance has impressed the people of Sierra Leone, unlike his violent-oriented predecessor Ambrose Michael Sovulla who would have definitely adopted heavy-handedness to punish peaceful protesters to satisfy his boss, President Bio.
A stern warning has however been issued by the Government Security Sector informing the PPP organisers of the protests that there would be consequences if the protests go ahead without government approval. In a press statement dated August 8, 2022, the Security Sector notes: “We wish the public to know that no group or group of persons have requested permission as required by law, either verbally or in writing, from the police to hold such demonstrations. Nobody has come forward as a leader or organiser of such events. In this regard, the security sector would like to advise all citizens to go about their normal business, and not to heed to calls for faceless demonstrations,” signed by National Security Coordinator Abdulai Caulker. (Photo: Press Statement).
The desperation in the SLPP government has reached boiling point and now they are begging and bribing many internal stakeholders to resist the temptation to join the demonstrators starting tomorrow. Sources say President Bio has ordered his government to bribe stakeholders like the Civil Society Organisations, SLPP Women Organisations, Religious Leaders, the Business Community, Heads of the Bike Riders, the Okada Riders, Kekeh Riders, and others to avoid the protests and to go about their normal businesses. The government knows that if these vital stakeholders down their tools and join the sit-down demonstrations, the country would come to a halt and the repercussion on the country would be devastating. But from the look of things, the people are determined to go ahead with the demonstrations.
Organisers of the demonstrations, the Peoples Power in Politics PPP have however indicated that the protesters do not need any permit to demonstrate in Sierra Leone. “It is our fundamental human right to protest any time we wish. We do not need any permission from the government to exercise this right as citizens,” a female protester said in Freetown. As we go to press, some officials of the jittery SLPP regime are now blaming the main opposition APC party for being behind the August 8, demonstrations. Even though the PPP organisers have publicly made it clear that the protests are the brainchild of the people of Sierra Leone who are tired of the socio-economic backwardness of the country under President Bio in the last four years, the buffoon SLPP media continues to lie and blame the APC.
Last night, Sierra Leone’s leading social media activist Adebayor based in Holland disclosed that police have started arresting some people in Lunsar in northern Sierra Leone because they were found in possession of PPP T-shirts in readiness for tomorrow’s demonstrations. Adebayor also said in his audio that President Bio has instructed his deadly Forest Guards aka Kamajors to use violence on citizens who protest tomorrow. There is definitely tension brewing in the SLPP government camp as the international community is fully focussed on events in Sierra Leone. The United Nations Rapporteur recently warned the Bio presidency that every person has the right to protest. It remains to be seen whether the SLPP government would act democratically and allow the people to exercise their rights and duties.
