By Isha S. Mansaray; Liberty Online TV.
The All People’s Congress (APC) party supporters serenade the party’s head office at Hannah Benka Coker Street, Freetown, with placards in protest for electoral justice and calling for a re-run of the June 2023 elections. The protesters expressed their dissatisfaction against the party’s executives over the arrangement of the meeting between APC and the international guarantors, excluding grassroots supporters of the party.
A significant deployment of security personnel was at the scene to manage the crowd of protesters trying to approach the building. In an attempt to disperse the gathering, the police launched tear gas, which inadvertently impacted pupils at the Freetown Secondary School for Girls as the gas drifted onto the school grounds.
On October 14th, 2024, the All People’s Congress conveyed an open letter to the Sierra Leone Police Force requesting for security presence at the party’s headquarter ahead of their meeting with the international moral guarantors scheduled for October 15th, 2024.
The high-level delegation from the Commonwealth, led by the former vice of Gambia, Her Excellency Fatoumata Jalloh-Tambajang, and the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General (UNSRSG), His Excellency Leonardo Santo Simao, arrived in Freetown on October 14th, 2024, to follow up on Sierra Leone’s National Unity Agreement implementation. The peace agreement was signed in October 2023 between the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and main opposition party All People’s Congress (APC) to foster national unity. Part of the delegation’s mission is to engage with the government, opposition parties, and Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) on the implementation of resolutions agreed upon in 2023.
In an interview with Liberty Online TV, the National Publicity Secretary of APC, Sidie Yayah Tunis, provides insights as to the reason the party requested the heavy presence of security personnel at the party’s headquarters ahead of the scheduled meeting with the international moral guarantors.
He claimed that there were speculations of planned protests for electoral justice, but the party is not involved in such, hence the need for security presence to main law and order during the entire process. Sidie went on to say that there were false information circulating that the delegation visit is to overthrow the current administration and conduct a re-run of the June 2023 election , but this is untrue.
Further information on the outcome of the meeting will be provided; kindly continue to follow Liberty Online TV for the latest news updates.