Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR: Siera Leone Telegraph: 12 June 2021:
In the midst of accolades being showered on Sierra Leone’s President Bio as a so-called “Champion of Free Speech”, it is a fact that a young member of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) party, Mr. Michael Magba Mansaray, is today, Saturday June 12th 2021, spending his 45th day behind bars for committing absolutely no criminal offense.
His ostensible crime is that he dared to record a video in which he truthfully criticised President Bio as having not much to show as development strides to the people of Bo District, when compared to the work of the former president within the same district.
As a result of his video done on April 27th, 2021, in which Mansaray expressed dissenting views critical of President Bio, the Government that is currently led by President Bio, was to embark on a kangaroo prosecution of the young man.
The Government, through the Sierra Leone Police, was to cook up non-existent crimes to ensure the young opposition dissenting voice, is kept behind prison bars.
First of all, an identified bunch of Police officers and known supporters of President Bio went to the private residence of Mansaray whilst he was having his bath.
They kidnapped him in broad daylight, dragging him half naked from his bathroom into a jeep before they violently drove off with him.
As they were executing their kidnap of the opposition youth activist, they were gloriously recording live videos of the incident and sharing it on social media.
In one of the videos, the kidnappers can be heard making threatening remarks that if the Police Commandant for the Southern Province, (at the time it was AIG Fayia Sellu who was in post) dared to release the kidnapped man after making such a video criticising President Bio, there could be consequences for the Police Commandant.
Eventually, after several days of detention and after a comprehensive examination of the video, it was realised the opposition APC Youth leader cannot be charged for anything criminal insofar as the video is concerned.
So Mansaray was taken back to his house for what the Police describe as a “Search”. In his house, they found medical items belonging to his wife who is a nurse. The few items included syringes and Oral Rehydration Salts.
According to the Police evidence to the courts, the items found also included 9 (nine) tablets of a Panadol/Ibuprofen headache medicine known as RELIEF.
The 9 tablets were on a single strip of card. It had been 10 tablets but one had been used by the young man.
So, the Government of President Bio, through the Sierra Leone Police, decided that they will charge him to court and he was then convicted for possessing the 9 tablets of Panadol/Ibuprofen in his house.
However, there is absolutely no Law in Sierra Leone that makes it a criminal offense to have Panadol in your house. None at all. None, None, None!
So the Government that is led by the “Champion of Free Speech” President Bio proceeded to use a Law enacted in 2008 which specifically states it is ONLY for criminal offenses involving dangerous drugs like Cocaine and Heroin.
Mansaray was then wrongly and maliciously charged under that 2008 Law subsequent to which, he was wrongfully and summarily found guilty of a non-existent crime of having 9 Panadol tablets and for which he has now been sentenced to 8 months jail.
The young opposition APC activist has now spent 45 days in custody since he was first kidnapped, half naked from his house, by supporters and government officials of the Government led by the so-called “Champion of Free Speech” President Julius Maada Bio.
A Sierra Leonean citizen is now behind bars for 45 days today for a non-existent crime of having 9 Panadol tablets in his private house. This is Sierra Leone under President Bio. Welcome to Sierra Leone’s version of “Free Speech”.
No one knows Bio’s insatiable appetite to go after his political opponents than Dr Sylvia Blyden. She has been there, done it, and she wears the T-shirt. When she speaks , she speaks with authority no Sierra Leonean has managed to master. Because she’d gone through Bio’s personal vendettas politics attacks . And what that means to any unfortunate Sierra-Leonean that found themselves in the receiving end of Bio’s anger, the president can use the instruments of the state, like the police and the courts, and the powers of the presidency to suppressed decent, where ever, when ever and what ever is said against him, both in the public, and private spheres. So this much taunted respect for the freedom of speech, and the repeal of the 1965 libel laws, was to satify our international partners, because Bio was under pressure to do so. So Sierra-leoneans people that claimed, or believed in the rule of law, and the right of individuals to expressed themselves freely, with out fearing for their safty and family, should sit up, and listen.
Dr Blyden has become the sounding board , or the early warning system of the excess of Bio’s dictatorial tendencies. She has been in the receiving end of his thin skin. When it comes to respect for free speech, the president actions speak louder than his voice. For those of us that studied him, its all too familiar story. He never dissapoint. The president is allergic to criticism, and telling the truth . The consequences of which saw the Sierra Leone police arrest, and ramshack her property, for crimes that she never committed. Dr Blyden can read Bio like the plam of her hands. She knows what makes him tick. Whilst the World was in the grip of Covid19 pandemic, at the beginning of 2020, Bio was busy fighting Dr Blyden in the courts, and the court of Sierra Leone public opinion, for crimes that She never committed. Hence she was released, after spending weeks in Bio’s notorious gulag facility for political opponents at Pademba Road Prison.
Now we are witnessing a replay of that episode all over again, against this young man that dares to speak his mind. This is part two. Fasten your seat belts. As always we have members of the Sierra Leone police force, Bio’s thuggish para military forces doing his bidding, giving the free hand to run amok. And the freedom to Kidnap and assault peaceful citizens, that are only expressing their opinions. Now I wonder what SLAJ, and its fruit cake for brain leadership think of this case that is hanging over Mr Mansaray? Will our so called free press, call for his release, or are they going to bury their heads in the sand, and wish the problem away? Whose side are they on? The people or the the powers that be. Given the charade of accolade they bestowed on Bio, as a champion of press freedom, surely that cant be right. SlAJ have now sunk to the common denominator of see no evil and hear no evil. And the posture that they have adopted, will in the long term have a detrimental effect on the way forward for our country. May God bless Sierra-leone.
Dr Blyden, is this your version of this young man’s arrest and subsequent detention? You will be doing service to the nation and to yourself if you tell the whole story. Were you at his house when the arrest was made? Can you in good faith verify the types of drugs found in his house? Why should the police ruin their reputation for a non-potent & non- ddictive drug like panadol?
what a nonsense; everywhere you can get panadol without precription.
This will teach the APC youth in question a lesson to sometimes keep his opinions to himself. Look who is laughing now.