Invasion Imminent
There is a Parliamentary bye election coming up in Pujehun district over the weekend; the seat became vacant on the death of the PMDC Parliamentarian who had won it for the Peoples Movement for Democratic Change. Our people in that district as well as in parts of Bo and Bonthe district had voted for the PMDC in preference to the SLPP under the illusion created by Charles Margai that it was in the interest of the people to support his political ambitions because only then would the North-South political divide be done away with. Several of his supporters were taken in by the propaganda and forgot all that the SLPP had done during and after the war. It would be correct to assume that the veil has been removed from the face of most of our people who from all indications are prepared to return to their roots. They have not yielded to the propaganda onslaught of the Pujehun Kaikai duo and if given the free will, would vote SLPP.
The APC is well aware of this, as has been demonstrated elsewhere; but the party has an insatiable desire to get a foothold in Pujehun and Kailahun districts in particular in order to tell the world that they have unified the country. Like on previous occasions, spending large sums of money in bribery and other mean tasks will be no obstacle in the pursuit of their objective. It reminds me of Winston Churchill’s cry and exhortation to the British navy during the Second World War: “SINK THE BISMARK!†The instruction from the APC leadership is “GRAB THAT SEAT FROM THE PMDC AND THE SLPP!†As it is well established, there is already an invasion of the Pujehun district by APC top guns with their operatives who are ready to use all means, including coercion and outright violence to secure the seat. They did it before for the local council elections when they used the likes of the Resident Minister south and his hit man Yeti Yeti to scare the daylight out of our people and to vote in their place. It is also reported that there are vigilantes across the border in Liberia who are ready to move in for the operation.
My advice to the ruling party is that they should grow up and leave the choice of who should represent them to the people of the area. There was no such attempt by the SLPP opposition during the recent campaign to fill the vacancy created by Eddie Turay’s appointment as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. The APC has both the money and the security forces at their disposal and we are all too aware of how the latter operate on such occasions. But it is a dangerous practice and if the will of the people is tested beyond yield point the only alternative left to them would be to resist at whatever price. The government’s propaganda machinery is in overdrive; they should have no difficulty in selling their performance and their achievement without resorting to violence and intimidation. I challenge them to leave the judgment for that to the people who are the beneficiaries. A Joe Kpundeh who wrote in the African Champion newspaper yesterday from Pujehun extolling the achievements of the APC should need no threat of physical violence to cast his vote for the ruling party. This is a note of warning as well as for the information of the international community led by the UN’s Michael von Schulenburg. The recent history of our country suggests that our people can only take so much.
I must again apologize for my failure to conclude the opinion on How APC won the results in 2007 but this matter of imminent violence worries me. Also many thanks to “my Mafanta mate†who has reminded me that the late Maya kaikai arrived in Mafanta a couple of days after us in 1968, so how could Puawui have written to Siaka Stevens to detain the man there? This particular matter is now behind me.
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