Sierra Leone News: APC Condemns Alarming Rise in Arrests of Members

By Rima Turay

The leadership of the All People’s Congress (APC) party has drew the attention of Sierra Leoneans and the International Community to “the new pattern of unjust and indiscriminate arrest of peaceful and law abiding members of their revered APC Party on trumped up charges”.

The APC party said in a statement on Tuesday that “these members have been detained for varying periods and most of them refused bail contrary to Section 17 of the 1991 Constitution of the Republic of Sierra Leone.”

The Secretary General of APC, Alhaji Ambassador Dr. Osman Foday Yansaneh said on May 31, 2019, the Sierra Leone Police raided the offices of The APC Party and brutalized their members that were barricaded there. “As if that was not enough, they went further to arrest and detain about 145 of our members for several days at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID),” he said, adding that “47 of them were subsequently charged to court without any hearing to date which in itself is a violation of their rights to fair hearing within a reasonable time, as guaranteed under Section 23 of the 1991 Constitution”.

“Since that barbaric attack by the SLP, the Publicity Secretary of the APC Mr. Cornelius Deveaux is still at large and we continue to fear for his personal safety and security,” he said.

“Similarly, on July 29, 2019, a day set aside by the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) for our APC Party to organize a rally in support of our candidate for the Re-run elections in Constituency 110, our supporters were attacked by members of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) who were not supposed to rally on that day,” the APC party said.

“The Sierra Leone Police (SLP) arrested and incarcerated 23 supporters of the APC including a 73-year-old man, a sick young man that was severely beaten and brutalized in the home of the SLPP candidate (video of the incident is available on social media), and a former Minister that had gone to the Adonkia Police Station to report the unfortunate incident. All but one of them are still incarcerated at the Pademba Road Maximum Security Correctional Services Prison awaiting trial,” the Secretary General said.

He said, “The decision by the Magistrate to refuse them bail is in clear breach of their fundamental human right.”

The APC party went further to state that “On August 13, 2019, the Chairman of the Western Area Rural District was arrested and detained on similar fabricated and trumped up charges.” He has admitted to bail after spending several days in jail.

“He has been refused bail repeatedly, he is still detained at the Pademba Road Maximum Security Correctional Services Prison,” Ambassador Yasaneh said.

“The APC also said on August 19, 2019, the SLP have again arrested the former Mayor of the Freetown City Council [Herbert Williams], who has since been charged to court and detained. There is a long list of other senior members of the APC Party that reports have say, are next in line to be arrested and detained for similar reasons,” the party said in a statement.

Ambassador Yansaneh said, “The APC Party wishes to let all Sierra Leoneans (at home and abroad) and the international community know that the SLPP Government is now using the Sierra Leone Police to wage war on the APC. This incessant savagery meted out on our members and the accompanying acts of intimidation and threats are becoming unbearable for our Party.”

The APC Party wishes to make it known that such acts threaten the peace and stability of this country and undermine the basic tenets of democracy and good governance that they have all fought so hard to nurture and sustain.

“It is now apparent that these actions by the SLP under the watch of the SLPP Government are clearly designed to ensure that our voters in Constituency 110 are disenfranchised by forcing them to run away from the Constituency and seek refuge in faraway places for fear of being arrested and detained,” Ambassador Yansaneh said.

APC called on the international community and especially their moral guarantors to bring pressure to bear on the SLPP Government and the SLP to stop these senseless moves that have the propensity to degenerate into sustained acts of violence that could threaten the peace and stability of the country.