By Karifa Kello Thoronka
According to one of our correspondent who called me from Lunsar, several factors could be attributed to the chaos in the town. Firstly, there is growing hardship and hunger ravaging the township due to unemployment and poverty, Philip Brahimsorie Bangura who is popularly known as Sound P. is said to have been implicated in the Incident by his mere affiliation to Ibrahim Sulaiman Kabia aka Bulgur –who is a childhood friend and associate to him. Many People believed it was a wise decision for Sound P, Bulgur and the others to have fled the Country noting that most of those who risked staying were rounded up and have since been incarceration and they still wanted by the Sierra Leone police.
Whiles speaking with the media, one of the son of the soil in Lunsar by the name of Abdul Kamara noted that Philip Brahimsorie Bangura and his friend Bulgur sent out audio messages on several whatsapp groups calling for the dethroning of the Paramount Chief. Police reacted swiftly by arresting both of them that triggered the outbreak of violence as an army of youths mobilized to free the detainee.
The police station was attacked with stones forcing the police officers to flee in disarray. Eyewitness accounts say the police station was set ablaze and several roadblocks was mounted by youths thereby obstructing the free flow of traffic.
The issue of the Paramount Chief is just the last straw to breaks the camel’s back!
The prevailing atmosphere in Lunsar was acrimonious as the authorities struggle to maintain law and order.
Nephew of Philip, who preferred for his name not to be mentioned, said it went to a time when the hunt for their Nephew was intensified and that if they set eyes on him they might kill him, and that search still continue.
Sources close to Philip Brahimsorie Bangura indicates that he is still struggling in exile and was tempted to return home following what appeared to have been an amnesty for those on Politically motivated cases. ‘But how can he or the others risk coming home at this particular time when they are still wanted by the State and while the matter is yet in the High Court of the Country’ – an elderly man opined.
