President Adama Barrow of The Gambia
The President of the Gambia, Adama Barrow, has sent a congratulatory message to the people of Sierra Leone for the just concluded elections. But I am sitting here in my office perplexed about the true reason for the message as there is definitely nothing to congratulate the people of Sierra Leone about. The just concluded election result was a mastermind of the crafty and corrupt intervention of the kleptocratic president Julius Maada Bio. The election was rigged in broad daylight and under the watchful eyes of credible International Observers who were scathing in their analysis, calling the process farcical and without any transparency and accountability. The electoral commissioner acted like someone who was under serious duress and with a gun pointed at his head. He was so confused that he got the numbers wrong and I suspect that was deliberately done to send a clear message that his life was in danger and he had no choice.
Rumors had it that he was threatened by Lawrence Leema the chief thug in the president’s cabinet, that he would be killed in cold blood, and his family will disappear without a trace if he gives the opposition APC victory. But the Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Konneh has on his phone direct access to The US Ambassador, the British High Commissioner, the EU Representative, and the German Ambassador who have had several meetings with him, and not a single time did he make any attempt to reach these people by phone to alert them of the danger he and his family were facing.
This can only point to one thing: that Konneh was under gunpoint surrounded by Bio’s thugs with orders to shoot and kill him if he disobeys instructions that has been given to him by Bio. Konneh had purportedly issued a press release claiming that 60 percent of the votes had been counted with huge discrepancies around the figures. And it was later reported that the release was doctored at State House on the orders of the President to make it look like it was from Konneh. The release was meant to set the stage for the final results to be announced. What Julius Maada Bio did not realize was that he had around him some buffoons who can hardly write proper English and do proper maths. The press release was then issued and it didn’t take long before some in the media picked up the errors around the figures and there was a worldwide condemnation of the ECSL under Konneh. The interesting thing is a press release of such magnitude should have taken the form of an official public statement announced by Konneh. Konneh may have refused to do this and Bio was quick to conclude that the only way to give legitimacy to the release was to arrange for a public showing of Konneh when the final results were going to be announced.
At the center where the announcement was made, several fully armed military and police personnel were on show to prevent any mishaps by Konneh who looked extremely frightened and with a cracked voice made the announcement with extraordinary effort to conceal any pressure he was under. There were beads of sweat on Konneh’s face as he read the results, a clear indication of a man in fear for his life.
It is worth noting that Konneh has disappeared since he declared Bio the winner. He has not been seen in public since neither have any members of his family. Julius Maada Bio has made Konneh the most hated man in Sierra Leone but I am pretty sure when the story is told Konneh will be vindicated.
President Adama Barrow should be cognisant of what transpired in Sierra Leone as he had similar problems with Yahya Jammeh in the Gambia and must know firsthand how dictators behave. To lend his support to a criminal like Julius Maada Bio at this time is rather unfortunate as it shows he is no friend of the people of Sierra Leone and history will not be kind to him. President Barrow should show his democratic credentials and be in solidarity with the people of Sierra Leone who have been robbed of their democratic rights by a man who can only be described as an enemy of the state and who has no business in the governance of Sierra Leone. But it seems Barrow may have been heavily influenced by the ostentatious wife of Bio, Fatima, who is Gambian by origin and who has recently associated herself with Barrow and his wife and has made several visits to Banjul to meet the couple.
Julius Maada Bio is a thief, a murderer, a crook, a state embezzler, and a wife-beater. He has assaulted the state resources and diverted funds meant for the suffering masses to his private bank accounts. He has suffocated the liberty and human rights of the people. He sold the country’s passports to corrupt Chinese businessmen and has presided over the biggest election fraud the country has ever seen.
Any government or president who congratulates President Bio on any election victory will not only be insulting the people of Sierra Leone but they will be complicit in destroying our way of life as a people. Barrow has been warned! The election results will be reversed and the people of Sierra Leone deserve to choose who their leader should be we also deserve to know the whereabouts of Mohamed Konneh and the international diplomats on the ground should request a private meeting with Konneh and offer him and his family round the clock protection and a safe exit to another country so that he can tell his story and get the facts from him as to what really transpired.
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