Sierra Leone Telegraph: 8 July 2022:
Opposition politicians – Dr Femi Claudius Cole and Dr Dennis Bright who were arrested last Sunday, allegedly for inciting unlawful street protest, were released from detention yesterday after spending four nights behind bars.
They are required to report to the police station on a daily basis until told otherwise, and are said to be in ‘great spirits and grateful for all the support they have received, directly, indirectly, loudly and quietly’.
Dozens of women arrested by police in Freetown last week, accused of taking part in street protest were released two days ago. (Photo below: Femi Claudius Cole – on the right, and the Mayor of Freetown – Yvonne Aki Sawyerr, after Femi was released by police yesterday).
Excuse me for too many mistakes I made in my writing, I didn’t even check my words I mistakenly pushed post, it was too late and I can’t retrieve. But I hope you understand the contents. Thanks
My own big brother long time, I am happy that you’ve responded to me kindly, that shows who you’re. I appreciate that thanks. To begin with, I just get irritated when some people came to this noble forum instead of talking something beneficial to educate us, they will first of all started criticizing, insulting the President and his family, wife and so on. Let me gently ask this question; when Bio became President of Sierra Leone? just three years ago, and what did he inherited from the previous gov’t?, a lot of mess.
Even Dr. Samura Kamara himself admitted during the presidential debate ever in the history of this country. He was asked” who is to be blame for the collapsed of the economy?” his response was the “gov’t” I believed you can’t dispute that brother. Bio came with a clear plans to take this country forward, but I swear to God, APC gives no chance for the Bio led SLPP gov’t to functions accordingly. Let’s take an example from the developed countries, both incumbent and the opposition parties working together, they agreed on disagrees just to make the country people happy.
Using the word on your sitting leader, he likes only two women in this world that are his mother and wife, folk; think you that we are the only nationals or Sierra Leoneans always checking-out this noble platform?.
The Westerns are admiring, enjoying reading our articles if you don’t know. Don’t you understand how well educated the Sierra Leoneans are?. Yes of course today’s democracy is completely good for the poor people like I do, you can say whatever you wanted, but at the same time you gat to be careful. There is one flesh in human-being very soft boneless, but can cuts heart in to pieces, that’s ” your tongue”. If it good in you; means all parts of your body is have become pure, and if if bad you will only few friends, so whish of the two do chosen?. Let’s not imitated and compare ourselves to the westerns democracy, no we don’t have one, nada. Also I wanted to emphasize this every Sierra Leoneans, do not even try it to imitate on what happened recently in Sri-Lanka, and we are not praying for another civil war, I hope that we have totally regret the past and I hope we do. Some of us saying let Drs. Femi and Dennis sue the police dept, for unlawful detentions, O boy, my brother they don’t have the money! do you wanted to bring and implement the European policy in Sierra Leone? Bra, money nor dae na d kontry…. when I mentioned the word that hate, brother is cleared to everyone how much they hate this man, they have paralyzed him while he was in Kenya for a visit, wished him with COVID 19 disease when he was in Lebanon, I don’t have time to mention all, yes indeed you guys don’t like him. Bio never appointed himself as any University Dean in this country since he took office. May God guide us all.
Mr Brima Sesay no one hates our President. I certainly don’t .Infact I classed myself as the best friend of Bio because your friends always speaks the truth to you. So the idea that any one who is oppose to this government or any future government or president for that matter is unpatriotic is not only reminiscent of Chairman Moa cultural revolution or playing into the hands of the “WOKE” Culture that is taking over the world ,is also an insult to our intelligence and a great deservice to our nation by trying to get us to jump on to the Bio bandwagon for the ride to nowhere . Maybe you think our country that continues to amass a debt burden for us and future generations is heading in the right direction , and I have my own views on that and does that makes me an enemy of the state of Sierra Leone ? . Friends don’t lie to each other .And Bio have surround himself with such Yes men .And I believed those very people have hihacked his presidency to the detriment of our country.We are all in the same boat for the better or worse in Sierra leone . we all have families and we lost family members in the RUF wars and we don’t want that to happen again.
The Bio policies and the Stevens and Momoh governments policies are increasingly mirroring each other.And we need to remind our leaders about the dangers of that .You say he fought defending the country during the RUF wars. That’s great .And we are always grateful to them all.But what you Mr Sesay forget to say maybe if the Stevens government and Momoh government had put our Godgiven natural resources to good use and no corruption , maybe none of us would have heard of the RUF or Foday Sankoh or Sam Bokarie and other psychopaths like them .Because a nation that invest in it’s people through education and development projects will not be fighting civil wars because of poverty and want .Recently the people of Sri Lanka rose up against two war heroes the Rajapaksa brothers that helped fought and defeat the Tamil Tigers back in 2009.Back then they were treated like royalty in the country .The civil war lasted from 1983 to 2009.Now imagine Mr Sesay you are the president of Sierra Leone and you surround yourself with people that have different agendas from what you were planning to do to improve the lives of your fellow Sierra leoneans.Suffice to say Bio himself admitted to it.Maybe the president was crying out for help .He knew his agenda for the country has gone haywire.That is where you need this public forums to point out the flaws of the government .You yourself if you are honest with yourself we don’t have a strong opposition in the country .By the way when you oppose something doesn’t automatically translate you hate the thing you oppose .Might be you have a different take from what you see happening around you.The only unforgivable sin is for you to try and convince me to believe in what you believe in .That is what is called extremist ideology .You might be thinking religion but rest assured I am referring to the political process of our country and how I think it should be conducted .
We might agree to disagree but we remain as fellow citizens regardless.If you think Bio is getting a lot of flak from us , spare a thought for former president Trump ,and the British Prime Minister, the Australian Prime Minister and notable leaders like the president of South Africa , Kenya , and Nigeria .I think we have been generous in our criticism of Bio and his government..He should count his lucky stars .Two things stands in his favour .Firstly as Sierra Leonean children we are told to respect our elders with in the family .Your parents and Brothers and Sisters and any elder in the village .Secondly we always respect our rulers and hold them at high esteem.Which very much applied to Bio and his family .And by the way Mr Thomas will police any one who tries to use vulgarity and obsence language on this platform.Not only to the president and his government but the contributors alike .Here the freedom of speech is well respected and police with jealousy.In terms of debating facts from fiction the Sierra Leone Telegraph is the best that happened to our country .Both in terms of news gathering that allow you and me to debate things that interest about our country .
I just wondered on the behaviors on some of our colleagues in this noble forum, these people care nothing about this country but themselves, neither bare to take one single responsibility for their family members when they going hungry. I predicted that, to get $20 dollar code from them is scarce. But to write good English to criticize and used bad or vulgar languages on a party gov’t, is easy as go for them. Some of us already got used to it insulting Bio, would make them feel happy really? Sierra Leone; we are still lack and I’m afraid else we will remain in this position for a long period of time. Both Drs, Femi and Dennis went to the monkeys’ club, folks they must expect to touch by monkeys tails. Though some people will decide to be locked-up to get fame oh yes, if that is your decision good for you.
Nelson Mandela went to prison not only for his own right but the people, guess what happened for him after his released, you be the judge. He was fighting for the freedom but on the other hand, some of us just fighting because they “hate” a patriotic Citizen that sacrificed his entire life for his country, though he been characterized as a” Ghanian” citizen, people let’s take Sierra Leone to progress. You started your education in this country from your childhood and was lucky to traveled to abroad by any means, instead of living there paying mortgages, benefiting the richest rather than your country, please come home and join to build Sierra Leone. “Lieutenant Bio” was assigned in one of the villages in Kambia District I can’t recall the name of the village or town. Who brought the cause of the war? is APCs mismanagement and itt treatments of the soldiers in the war front, do you have any understanding how they used to survive in the harms way? at the time, some of us were running like a wolf or flying pigeon, while this man(Bio) fighting the enemies in the line of duty, can we credit him for that? if we don’t, well God has done it for us. APC illegally fired the country’s elected Vice President in the eyes of the whole world who says something? come on tell us. I repeated find something to campaign on, all your 11 years in office let the people decide folks!. May God protects this country.
Drs Femi Claudius-Cole and Denis Bright have been released – so what? They should not have been locked up in the first place . What were the charges? None. Only a government which has become afraid of its own shadow that will engage in the enraging act of beating up and arresting people for free expression of their views. Bio’s skin is just too thin to be a democrat. And his demented IG, Sovula, is more qualified to be a street gang leader than a law enforcer. Can someone please tell him to hand his fake degree, which he criminality obtained, to Dr Idriss Lahai for destruction?
I have come to the story rather late, but I don’t think its last chapter has been written. It’s a dragnet story, only that the current chapter deals with Drs Cole and Bright. Who’s next as Bio continues to have nightmares of being tossed out of State House next year?
I believe that this protest was organized by former President Koroma after the appeal court’s decision against him and the successful release of the new Leone. Women should be angry to see most of these vulnerable women being used as political pawns by some rogue politicians.
President Talk and do Bio and the “Iron” First Lady Dr. Fatima Bio have already been regarded as champions of Women and girls advocates around the world, so for this 0.2% politician Femi Cole, to hijack women’s issues after our country just concluded the 10th Africa conference on sexual health and women rights is rather unfortunate. Our president’s pledged to give our women their rights to choose has been applauded by the international community. Economically, he has helped most of our women petty traders through the MUNFA fund.
Finally, after a plane loaded with powerful African American politicians who demonstrated their admiration for our democracy, our current Mayor Aki Sawyer of Freetown recently organized demonstration (APC members and supporters) in Washington DC against our president and condemning the MCC for awarding over $400 million which supposed to benefit Freetown electricity development. Corruption fighting back in our country is understandable, but for a sitting mayor who has been accused of corruption and now trying to destroy the image of our country abroad is a new low. Lets continue to pray for our security forces to continue to maintain LAW AND ORDER in our beloved nation.
I am just watching news of people in Sri Lanka being assertive and putting the feet of their politicians on a hot-burning fire to force them to do something about the galloping inflation and unprecedented cost of living crisis. They even have the audacity of trampling upon the swimming pool of their president. Apparently they don’t buy that Ukraine war crap of an excuse.
Worse is to come as the war of attrition north of the Black Sea will drag on and on without any lull on the horizon. The Russians have stated that they are not even in their stride yet and the Ukrainians have vowed to claw back every inch of their territory that is being occupied by the invaders. The stage is therefore set for a long and protracted war with ramifications and ripple effects that will be felt painfully from the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and other nations.
I won’t be surprised that this recent cost of living crisis protest by notoriously docile Sierra Leoneans will not be an aberration. My advice to the Government is it might be better to let politicians organise and lead such democratic protests than allowing prolong heavy-handedness, extreme suppression of political and human rights leading to simmering tensions that will eventually reach boiling point triggering non-political actors to join the fray . We do not want the country’s direction of travel or course of history to go full circle.
The quality or lack of thereof of some of the statements made by people on this forum shows the absymal depths to which we have plunged.
So poor defenceless market women have the ability, ninja like to get the SLP killed because of an order from Dennis Bright. Please do not insult my intelligence by talking nonsense.
This Government doesn’t have respect for women at all, I didn’t know why they always treat women like that.
This is something we have grown used to .Opposition leaders to Bio’s government can now literally claim CID headquarters as their second home .Dr Brigth and Dr Cole should be given their special keys to the filthy police cells that they seemed to spend more time in than outside where their people are desperately crying out for help because of the cost of living crisis facing families up and down the country. And the inspector general of police should not hike their rents we are living in hard times .No other politicians in the country knows how to calculate the rising cost of house hold items in the country ,accompanying by inflationary pressures and lack of sound economic polices than these two politicians that have managed to hold Bio’s feet by the fire for failing to live up to his outlandish promises he made to us back 2018 and we are still waiting for the delivery of the goods .Lets not for get the absurdity of the charges made against this two politicians , that over the years have been voice of the voiceless and recognised by vast majority of right thinking Sierra Leoneans as the only alternative to Bio and his failed economic policies.
Had to be said it would have hardly escape Bio’s attention that they needed to be harrassed, intimidated by releasing his attack dogs in the form of the Sierra Leone police and our courts to do his dirty works for him. Silencing the messengers of change is the only instrument left in Bio’s oppressive toolbox.Unfortunatly for Bio and his government the cost of living and the rise of price of foods and other commodities will not be sloved by the police waving AK 47 rifles and beating up protesting women.
Instead of wasting our resources on buying expensive military hardware from Turkey , we should be using such monies to buy tractors, not armoured personal carriers to help our poor farmers in the rural areas to produced rice , cassava , onions , pepper that is critical to make our country food sufficient in the age of food crisis gripping the world .In any country government subsidies for farmers is vital to increase food production .Instead of giving farmers the necessary help they needed , the Bio government prefer to buy sixty thousands dollars SUVs for his lazy ministers .His government priorities and the people he claims to represent are out of sync .
They should sue the Police for unlawful detention if they police after four days have come to the conclusion that they do not have a case against them.
I believe that these two will do exactly the same thing if the opportunity arises. It is unfortunate that Incitement which is a horrible crime especially when it come from political leaders is treated with kids glove in Sierra Leone. One day Sierra Leone will burn before we know that it is something that we should treat seriously.
Recently a video populated on social media showed of a police officer beaten and dragged on the street of Freetown. There was another of motor bike riders beating and wounding two traffic officers. In Sierra Leone save for the OSD, the police are unarmed. These two Political leaders are making videos inciting women to run after police officers and kill them and they are not made to face the full force of the law. This is a banana republic.