Abubakar Hashim/Freetown
An uneasy calm has returned to Freetown and nationwide, with strings of checkpoints, particularly entering the capital city.
The 24 -hour curfew has been relaxed to 6am to 9pm effective today. Many shops and businesses remain closed, a few ones opened.
What happened yesterday was a bitter memory of the 11- year old war.
The Chief Minister, with the Inspector General of Police and the Deputy Minister of Defence, were at the Pademba correctional Centre that was forcefully opened, to inspect a clean- up exercise with some prisoners that escaped yesterday seen back in the prison.
The number of casualties is yet to be confirmed but former President Koroma’s guard, was among those killed.
It is absolutely good that the former President has issued a statement, totally condemning yesterday’s sad and bitter development, to allay fears that the opposition orchestrated the dastardly episode.
The main problem Sierra Leone is yet to overcome, unlike neighbouring Liberia that even had a far more bitter 14 -year old war, is that the people, particularly those born just before or after the war, are yet to be fully conscious of the negative effects of war.
Preceding the just concluded elections in Liberia, I saw a determined people, who swore that never again would they allow chaos or another war in Liberia.
As investigations were ongoing, with some perpetrators arrested, “President Bio is on top of the situation and determined to work on the big 5 agenda, with a conclusion that people should go about their businesses and remain law abiding.” These words were on his official Twitter handle.
As former President Koroma has condemned yesterday’s sad episode, Dr Samura Kamara, the then opposition flag bearer of the APC should equally do the same, to further douse the tensed and uneasy calm in Sierra Leone.
The Director of Defence Public Relations, Col Issa Bangura, confirmed today that the sad episode of yesterday was “ an attempt to commit state subversion”…. literally meaning an attempted coup. He continued, “Retired military and police officers are the brains behind yesterday’s sad episode, who were earlier implicated in the past of previous subversions against the state.”
He confirmed a few arrests have been made and some are still on the run, with military uniforms on them.
Col Bangura further revealed that there were moles that provided leeway to gain entrance at the Wilberforce armoury, stating that there was stiff resistance by some officers at the barracks. He confirmed there were reinforcements from the Presidential Guards nearby to counter the illegal entry.