According to police sources, one Alusine Kamara of 85 George Brook in Freetown, is wanted in connection with the attempted coup of 26th November 2023. While acknowledging that Alusine Kamara is out of the country, they maintained that he will be arrested when he returns to the country.
Investigation mounted by this medium revealed that Alusine Kamara had long been under police radar for allegedly being among protesters in the August 10 riot that resulted in the deaths of 6 police officers and over 30 civilians. It was further disclosed by police sources that they did not arrest him all this while when he was in Freetown, because their Investigation was ongoing, but that with his name coming up in the attempted coup of 26th November 2023, they are now compelled to go after him.
However, other sources close to Alusine Kamara, as well as from the main opposition party (APC), say that all what the security forces are doing is going after known and prominent members of their party across the country, especially in their strongholds. It was disclosed that Alusine Kamara is from the North-West region, and a popular member of the main opposition party (APC). He is said to have been very vociferous over the economic situation in the country and failure of the ruling party to introduce policies that will ameliorate the suffering of the people, and this is said to be his undoing, and he became a target of the ruling party.
It was also disclosed that during the August 10 riot, Alusine Kamara joined the protesters to express their displeasure over the cost of living, and was then eye-marked for arrest, but there was not much evidence to tie him to any particular incident.
However, the attempted coup of 26th November gave the government and the police the opportunity to silence its opponents, leading to widespread arrests and detention of known opposition party members on allegations of involvement in the said attempted coup.
Though Alusine Kamara is out of the country on official assignment to attend an energy summit in the US on behalf of the Institution that he is working for, yet the police are using the attempted coup to arrest him, his Fiancee, Alimatu Sowa Turay explained, adding that she has been also targeted by ruling party youths with irregular raids on their residence by the police, in the company of ruling party youths. She furthered that she is fearful of her life and apprehensive of what will befall her Fiance if he returns to the country. She disclosed that after the August 10 riot, Alusine Kamara has been picked up several times on false allegations, and would spend over a week in police custody on some baseless allegations, only to set free later.
Concerned citizens have raised concerns that some of the names of persons alleged to be involved in the attempted coup, were old names in police records for different reasons, with some names on the list being people seeking police clearance for jobs, and that there are no records of the real perpetrators of the said attempted coup, adding that innocent people are being drawn into the matter based mainly on their political affiliations, and nothing else.
