According to police sources, Amadu Sesay and others have been declared wanted for their involvement in the August 10 violent riot. They maintained that Amadu Sesay, residing at 3 Lear Lane,off Bombay Lane, a business man carrying out business at Sani Abacha Street in Central Freetown, together with others in the same trade, were seen at the forefront of the demonstration when the police arrived. Unfortunately, Amadu Sesay and others were able to escape arrest on that day, but that intelligence got from informants had resulted in the arrest of some of them, but that Amadu Sesay and a few others are at large.
According to the police, the suspects are said to be staging a protest over destruction of their stalls at Sani Abacha Street, but that they were in the company of others who were calling for the President to step down. This, to them, is not a protest over the said claims, but a calculated action to remove the President, as a result of a call from a Diasporan.
To get the other side of the story, this medium visited the home of Amadu Sesay at Least Lane, in Eastern Freetown, where we were told that residents in the house had gone into hiding after several attacks by security forces and ruling party youths. Residents in the area, who spoke to this medium on condition of anonymity, explained that Amadu Sesay is a business man doing business at Sani Abacha street, and that his stall and store was destroyed, together with colleague business people, on the grounds that they were opposition party supporters and were listening to one resident in Holland, Adebayor, who was calling for a nationwide protest against the government over the hardship that was having its toll on the ordinary citizens. They furthered that against this demand from Adebayor for citizens to sit at home on the 8th and 9th of August, failing which they will have themselves to blame for what will happen to their businesses and vehicles, many residents across the country stayed at home, and this is believed to have infuriated the government, leading to security forces to destroy all market stalls along the Central Business District, affecting the livelihood of most of the traders, prompting them to join in the protest on the 10th August 2022.
It was further than that during the protest, the police stormed the streets firing tear gas and live bullets, killing a good number of people. Things then turned violent as youths responded to the police attacks with stones. Some 25 people were shot dead by the police, while 5 police officers became victims of mob justice. A curfew was declared at 3:00pm on 10th August. It was disclosed that during the said curfew, security forces stormed residences of alleged protesters and known opposition party supporters, who were accused of supporting the protest with the aim of toppling the government.
Our source furthered that the police raided the residences of Amadu Sesay and some known opposition party supporters, beating and taking those they found, away. In some case, residents reported seeing arrested people shot dead and loaded into unlicensed vehicles. Family members of those killed were not allowed to identify them, and many missing persons are believed dead.
However, as this medium was unable to see any family members of Amadu Sesay, because they too had gone into hiding, residents in the area explained that since that fateful day, the whereabouts of Amadu Sesay are unknown, and even feared dead. They opined that the declaration by the police of wanted persons, could be a ploy to cover for having killed the alleged missing persons.
