By Yusufu S. Bangura
Amidu Katta, Chairman of main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) in Bo District has said that many of his party supporters in Bo District have been forced to relocate to other districts and other unknown locations due to political intimidation and death threats by members of the ruling party the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
He said many APC supporters and members were physically attacked before, during, and after the highly disputed June 2023 election that saw President Julius Maada Bio re-elected for the second term.
Bo District is located in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, one of the major political strongholds of the ruling SLPP.
“Politics in this part of the country is very scary. There’s a common notion that every resident in the District must belong to the SLPP or support the Party during elections.
“Many of our supporters have fled this District in fear of their lives,” he said.
He recalled how one popular youth and a constituency chairman of the APC in Bo City, Mohamed Kargbo, was almost killed by SLPP thugs, forcing him to flee from the District “Until now, nobody knows his whereabouts, whether he is dead or alive.
The only crime he committed was being popular and being an opposition party figure. The District Chairman of the ruling party didn’t want to see him exist, Katta said.
He claimed he is aware that the District Council Chairman of the SLPP Mohamed Elogima Kendekpa Allie had approached Kargbo several times, urging him to join his Party, but Kargbo declined his request and as a result, he has been subjected to physical, verbal attacks and death threats by several thugs of the Party.
According to Katta, on the 19th of June, while having a meeting at their APC party office in Bo, Kargbo was reliably informed that some thugs had been sent to attack, beat, and kill him.
“He shared that information with us, and immediately I advised him and everyone to leave the building, but were caught up by the thugs who attacked and set our party office on fire,” he said.
He said the next day he advised Kargbo to run for his life and asked him to travel to Freetown and stay in the APC Party Headquarters for the time being, noting that but even in Freetown Kargbo was targeted. .
Again whilst at the party headquarters, Kargbo also participated in a demonstration calling on the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone to release the disaggregated voters’ data of the June 2023 election when some security personnel attacked and fired life rounds and tear gas canisters and action which put his life in more jeopardy.
“Since the incident at the APC Party Office, in Freetown, I have not set eyes or heard from Kargbo, and I don’t know his whereabouts. Just two days ago, when I learned that the police in Freetown had issued a warrant of arrest for him,” he narrated.
However, Mohamed Elogima Kendekpa Allie did not respond to the allegations against him despite all efforts by the Calabash Newspaper to get his side of the story.
Over the years, both local and international civil society organisations including Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI) have strongly slammed the rising spate of political violence and intimidation in the country before, during and after the just concluded general elections.
There have been several reports of political intimidation and violence against the opposition APC after President Rtd Brigadier Julius Maada Bio was announced winner of the highly disputed June 24 2023 presidential election
The pre-election period saw a dangerous escalation of political tensions, with the government’s security forces engaging in violent attacks on opposition politicians and their supporters, which resulted in the killing of a nurse, Hawa Dumbuya, 64 at the opposition Party office.
She was shot in the head at the APC Party Headquarter after police officers and the presidential guard surrounded the building during a post-election press conference.
The Chief Executive Officer of (CHRDI) Abdul M. Fatoma, described the 2023 election in Sierra Leone as one that brought the country close to widespread anarchy, chaos and instability, as the government’s security forces embarked on an orgy of violent attacks on opposition politicians and their supporters.
