By Alfred Fornah.
Harmless August 10th protester Maseray Sesay and Alhassan Mansaray are presently on the run as armed police officers and military personnel, together with government operatives, are after them because they were identified in one of the videos that went viral on social media of the August 10th protest in the country.
In a telephone interview with this medium, Maseray Sesay and Alhassan Mansaray, who are presently in hiding, said the police, military, and government operatives are busy killing people identified as part of the August 10th protest that left many dead.
“On the 10th of August, 2022, We were 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 Freetown to a deadly one leading to the death of 27 civilians, and 6 police officers and the burning down of police posts across the the eastern part of Freetown until Military Aid to Civil Power (MACP) was invoked. Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh immediately imposed a curfew.”
“After the protest had 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 we were identified. Some of our colleagues were arrested but I managed to escape to another location the police and military personnel were also raiding us at our Newton residence every night to an extent that on the 13th of August, 2022 we nearly get caught; and since our lives was under threat and we 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, we were left with no option but to run for our lives” They 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 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.
