In a no nonsense mood President Ernest Bai Koroma has issued a stern warning to political leaders and political followers that “there will be no hiding place for anybody.”
The President made these comments during the presentation of two reports on political violence in the month of September 2011. The first report was done by Acting Director of Police Community Relations Soloku Conteh on the Kono incident and the second report on the September 9th incidents in Bo was done by an Independent Investigation Panel.
President Koroma said that he set up the independent investigation panel for Bo “because of the peculiar nature of the incident and the circumstances we are coming from.” Pointing out that it was the sole duty of the police to handle such issues, the president said he decided to include institutions and organizations who have a stake in the political process in the country because he “wanted the report of whatever nature to be a report that is accepted and a report that would be credible”.
President Koroma reiterated that the Independent Investigation panel “is not a commission of enquiry, it is a committee that was set up to help the investigations so that it becomes credible.” He furthered that “the understanding is that this should be a defining moment in this country to send very clear signals that tolerance, political tolerance should be the order of the day. That violence should not be accepted in whatever form and wherever it comes from.”
The President stated that even as he was going to look at the report, he has instructed the Police “to follow the evidence and take a swift and appropriate action wherever the evidence leads you. If the evidence leads you to the APC so be it SLPP, PMDC wherever the evidence leads you, we must take appropriate and definitive actions now.”
He thundered, “This must be a warning to all of our political supporters, to all of them without exception that if you decide to take the law into your own hands you will have yourself to blame.” He added “it is also going to be a warning to the political leadership that we have a responsibility to provide a responsible leadership at this point in time.”
President Koroma pointed out that “we know what is going on now in Kenya,” adding that “any political leader who decides to provide a leadership that will encourage violence will take responsibility and there will be no hiding place for anybody.” He warned “there will be no hiding place, we will charge you here and the International Criminal Court (ICC) will also handle anybody and there will be no exceptions.”
With a determined frown on his face, President Koroma threatened that “as we are moving to the elections, maybe we have to put on notice the (ICC) prosecutor to be watching the Sierra Leone environment, to ensure that anybody that provides that kind of leadership will be investigated and there will be no hiding place.”
Directing his comments to the 2012 elections, President Koroma said “it is very very important that we all know that the rule of law should reign supreme in this country.” He again warned that “Nobody is above the law, no political leadership is above the law no political followers are above the law, (and) everybody will be subjected to the law.” He went on “the people of this country must be free everywhere in the country to associate themselves with any political party, with any candidate, be it a councilor, a member of parliament, a presidential candidate, they should have to be free to go out there and vote for the candidate of your choice.” He said “at the end of the day the results should be an accurate reflection of the polls, that is what democracy is all about, it is not a matter of life and death, it is not about raising private armies here and there.”
In the same vein he instructed that “with immediate effect the security of a presidential candidate of any political party who goes through the process, should be the responsibility of the state – so the issue of building private armies, private securities should no longer be a concern and the police are instructed accordingly.”
The President stressed that “As a country we have come a long way. We already have established democratic credentials and these democratic credentials are earning us a lot of respectability. We must maintain these democratic credentials and we will not allow anybody to derail that process.”
I decided to set up this committee because I wanted the report of whatever nature to be a report that is accepted and a report that would be credible I know that it is the full responsibility of the police to carry out such action but because of the peculiar nature of the incident and the circumstances we are coming from that is why I decided that it should be broadly based, that was why I also decided that we should have included in the committee institutions and organizations who are stake holders in the whole political process. So if we had the committee set up that was the rationale and let me thanks you all of you and the institutions you represent for giving this quick response to your country.
Now the committee is not a commission of enquiry it is a committee that was set up to help the investigations so that it becomes credible I have not looked at the report but the understanding and the commitment I made was that the composition is a credible composition and we expect a credible report.
And the understanding is that this should be a defining moment in this country to send very clear signals that tolerance political tolerance should be the order of the day. That violence should not be accepted in whatever form and wherever it comes from.
So whilst I will be looking at the report I will also instruct the police to follow the evidence and take a swift and appropriate action wherever the evidence leads you. If the evidence leads you to the APC so be it SLPP, PMDC wherever the evidence leads you we must take appropriate and definitive actions now.
As a country we have come a long way. We already have established democratic credentials and these democratic credentials are earning us a lot of respectability. We must maintain these democratic credentials and we will not allow anybody to derail that process. So like I said wherever the evidence leads you, you must follow
This must be a warning to all of our political supporters to all of them without exception that if you decide to take the law into your own hands you will have yourself to blame, and it is also going to be a warning to the political leadership that we have a responsibility to provide a responsible leadership at this point in time.
If you provide a leadership that will send signals of endorsing violence you will take responsibility for it.
Now let me also say maybe in looking forward the responsibility will not only be limited to the Sierra Leone Police, we know what is going on now in Kenya, any political leader who decides to provide a leadership that will encourage violence will take responsibility and there will be no hiding place for anybody there will be no hiding place we will charge you here and the international criminal court will also handle anybody and there will be no exceptions.
And as we are moving to the elections maybe we have to put on notice the prosecutor to be watching the Sierra Leone environment to be watching the Sierra Leonean environment to ensure that anybody that provides that kind of leadership will be investigated and there will be no hiding place.
I also believe that as a nation we must build our institutional capacity we should not wait until members of the International Community tell us what to do under …. Circumstance and I am happy that this has been an issue that has been Sierra Leonean led and it is going to be resolved by Sierra Leoneans it is demonstrating to the world that we are coming of age our institutions and organizations now have the capacity to handle issues all by themselves and as we are coming of age let me advice that subsequent issues will not be given to a committee. I do expect that the Police will develop the capacity to …. Quickly handle situations put situations under control and take the appropriate action that is what I expect.
Matters like these should not be referred to the leadership like it is happening in other countries the police should be in complete control take appropriate action there and then and follow it up with whatever charges you find appropriate at the point in time.
So we have to build our institutional capacity I know there are challenging moments but I do hope that with effect from this period we will not have the situation where we will have to set up a committee again or a commission of enquiry again because we do expect that the police will develop the capacity to ensure that the appropriate actions are taken.
Let me also use this opportunity to instruct the AGs office that we have 2 or 3 outstanding issues that have been the subject of a commission of enquiry that of which a follow up action has not been taken one is the Shears Moses commission of Enquiry, the other is I think the prisons breakout and a there is a third enquiry which we need to follow through let the Mr AG please ensure that in the next cabinet meetings as these issues are commissions of enquiry we must follow the process of submitting the report so that cabinet will come up with a white paper on these issues so that we conclude them.
I believe this is an important moment for all of us in this country and that we have come a long way in establishing ourselves as a democracy and as we are geared towards having the 2012 elections it is very very important that we all know that the rule of law should reign supreme in this country. Nobody is above the law no political leadership is above the law no political followers are above the law, everybody will be subjected to the law
the people of this country must be free everywhere in the country to associate themselves with any political party with any candidate be it a councilor a member of parliament a presidential candidate they should have to be free to go out there and vote for the candidate of your choice at the end of the day the results should be an accurate reflection of the ……… that is what democracy is all about it is not a matter of life and death it is not about raising private armies here and there. With this as I have instructed and from this point the police are given instruction that everybody complies with the law and let me also say that to ensure that protection is given to everybody the state should take responsibility for the security of anybody that goes through the process of becoming a presidential candidate of his or her political party.
So with immediate effect the security of a presidential candidate of any political party who goes through the process should be the responsibility of the state so the issue of building private armies, private securities should no longer be a concern and the police are instructed accordingly.
So finally let me thank all of you I will look at the report but as I am looking at the report I will also instruct to follow the evidence in the report so that swift and appropriate action is taken.
I will also appeal to members of the judiciary to ensure that we pay some attention on these issues so that very clear and definitive signals are sent out there to every Sierra Leonean that the issue of political violence should be history and the police are expected to be fully in charge with immediate effect.