Our appeal come prior to what’s envisaged to be a heated electoral campaign that will lead to the General Elections on 7th March 2018.

Recent developments are consistent with our forecast of fragile political stability and increasingly tense relations with the opposition as the elections approach. The heightened tensions will also remain a source of concern among donors, who may decide to delay some aid disbursements

We must sincerely recognise that legal voters as per National Electoral Commission laws peacefully voted President Koroma twice as President of Sierra Leone. With the tense and divisive atmosphere we are currently experiencing, the scenes we have witnessed yesterday in the Freetown main court on the hearing of the Sierra Leone People’s Party Public Relations Officer and the bad choice of words of the Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police against the SLPP at FM 98.1 are extremely worrying.

Politicians must quickly understand that acts of violence in any form and by anyone are unacceptable. The Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police must also try to be professional enough to understand that inflammatory rhetoric only deepens the divide and makes the neutrality of the Police Force in policing the coming elections more questionable.