By Sajor Bundu.
Harmless August 10th protester Mohamed Jalloh is presently on the run as armed police officers and military personnel together with government operatives are after him because he was identified in one of the videos that went viral on social media of August 10th protest in the country.
In a telephone interview with this medium, Mohamed Jalloh who is presently in hiding says the police, military and government operatives are busy killing people identified to be part of the August 10th protest that left many dead.
“On the 10th of August, 2022, I was part of a group of peaceful protesters in a protest organized by a movement called People’s Power in Politics (PPP) who were protesting because of the high cost of living, political intimidation, violation of our constitution and democratic tenets, extrajudicial killings, human rights violations and more under the present government headed by Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio.”
“The protest was very peaceful in the East End part of the capital city of Freetown where I was until when the Deputy Internal Affairs, Retired Lieutenant Lahai Lawrence Leema came to the scene with a jeep escorted by some police officers and military personnel and fired some shots at us and in the event two (2) people died and another was shot in the leg. This particular incident and the brutal manner in which the police handled the protest escalated it in some parts of the country to a deadly one leading to the death of 27 civilians, and 6 police officers and the burning down of police posts across the country until Military Aid to Civil Power (MACP) was invoked. A curfew was immediately imposed by Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh.”
“After the protest has been put under control, on the 11th of August, 2022, armed police officers and military personnel used pictures and videos of the protests together with certain informants to go to the houses of the key people they knew were part of the protest. It was at that event that I was identified together with my house. Some of my colleagues were arrested but I managed to escape to another location the police and military personnel were also raiding me there every night to an extent that on the 13th of August, 2022 I was nearly caught; and since my life was under threat and I could not risk it; and after Hassan Bangura popularly known as Evangelist Samson was murdered in cold blood in Makeni, Northern Province of the country by some armed police and military personnel who shot him from the back at a mini pub on the 14th of August, 2022, I was left with no option but to run for my life” He stated.
Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest nations and has gone through an eleven (11) years brutal civil war from 1991 to 2002. The relics of the war still remain both physically and mentally in the minds of people especially those who are twenty-eight (28) years and above. Sadly, enough, some of the root causes of the war are still prevalent such as political intimidation, political killings, arbitrary arrest and detention, injustice, suppression of freedom of speech and assembly and the right to protest.
