By Foday Moriba Conteh
The main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party, in a Press Statement it issued out dated 24th October, 2021 and signed by the National Secretary General of the party, Amb. Dr. Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh,has called for the release of its members arrested in Kabala and brought down to Freetown.
The release stated that the public would recall the 2nd October 2021 when the National Electoral Commission conducted by-elections for the vacant seats of Chairman of Koinadugu District Council and that of Councillor for Ward 155, Koinadugu District.
It continued that on the eve of polling day and immediately after polling closed on the day, elements of the Sierra Leone People’s Party carried out violent attacks against members of the All Peoples Congress and their properties, causing serious injuries to their persons
and malicious damage estimated in excess of one hundred million Leones.
The party maintained that one of the prominent APC sons of Koinadugu District whose person and property was the target of the wanton violence is Dr. S.S. Marrah and that his house at Chief Compound, Denka Street, Kabala Town was pelted with stones and Molotov cocktail bombs, causing extensive damage.
It furthered that the Sierra Leone Police, whose duty it is to protect lives and properties, investigate and bring the culprits of violent conduct to book, ironically arrested three youths, Mustapha Daramy, Farrah Yapie Marrah and Abu Bakarr D. Mansaray who were the victims of the reported violence and who are Dr. S.S. Marrah’s wards and living with him at his residence which was attacked, pointing out that the arrests took place on 4th of October 2021, and those arrested subsequently charged to the Kabala Magistrate Court and denied bail.
The APC noted that after lawyers for the three accused persons made an application for them to be discharged on Monday 11h October 2021, the Magistrate on receiving a phone call in the middle of the hearing announced to the court that having had orders from above he is remitting the Court file together with the three-accused persons to the CID HQ for further investigations, a practice which, according to the APC is a novelty and most unusual and that the three accused persons were taken to Freetown on 11th October 2021 and have been kept in police custody without bail or charged again to court.
“The detained youths; Mustapha Daramy, Farrah Yapie Marrah and Abu
Bakarr D. Mansaray have since been in police and court custody continuously for eighteen (18) days now without bail, a breach of their constitutional right as guaranteed under Section 17(3) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone. The APC is calling on the Sierra Leone Police toimmediately release the detained young persons on bail and carry out investigation to bring to book the culprits responsible for the carnage meted on Kabala town on the eve and day of polling” the Release stated.
It concluded by calling for the release of its members arrested in Kabala and brought down to Freetown and that the security and justice sectors are reminded that fairness is the bedrock of any stable democracy which they are duty bound to serve and protect.
