Moses Sesay
The Sierra Leone Police have announced more names of suspects considered to be planers and implementers of the August 8, 9 and 10, 2022 protests that turned into violence in Freetown, Sierra Leone.At a government press briefing held yesterday, the Police said they are still in search of one Suwaib Santigi Conteh of 7 Big Wharf (Moa Wharf) in Wellington, Joseph Mansaray and Samuel Sesay all of the east end of Freetown and other young people suspected of being the leaders of the People’s Power in Politics (PPP) Group that planned and implemented the protest in Freetown.
The police said they have evidence that led to them being seen as suspect, adding that several eyewitnesses have also named them as some of the ring leaders of the team that led the protest from the east end of the city. Police said after the protest was dispatched and many people arrested, Suwaib, Joseph and Samuel never returned home and have been on the run since then. Reports reaching this writer have it that police have on many occasions raided Suwaib former residence and forced residents therein to sit on the floor, whilst the officers and some youth, loyal to the government in governance, searched the house for Suwaib. Reports also revealed that residents at Suwaib’s former residence were beaten and threatened with death if they fail to produce him, after ransacking the entire house.This writer was reliably informed that Suwaib Santigi Conteh was a strong supporter of the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) Party and might have been involved in the protest, as he has always been an activist. Other sources have it that Suwaib was working for a mining company and also volunteering for a community based organisation called Campaign for the Voiceless and his role was to educate and sensitise youth about their rights, and gender based violence, abuse and female genital mutilation among other human rights issues. So, many community residents who spoke to this writer supported the police’s allegation that Suwaib must have been one of the planners and implementers of the protests.
To date, Police said they have arrested and detained over seventy people, allegedly involved in the protests, who are helping police investigations, while the first set of eighty-three protesters have been tried in court, found guilty and are now serving jail terms at the maximum prison.It was believed that most of these suspects are being accused falsely and that their arrests are politically motivated. A legal expert, whose identity is withheld, alleged that some of the protesters were convicted without a trial and following due process, some of which were falsely accused.This medium is also currently investigating the allegation of secret killings of some of the protesters arrested secretly during night raids on their residences.
