By James Maada Sannoh
One would have thought that the sad events of the past one week which started with a protest that turned ugly on 10thAugust 2022 and culminated in the loss of many lives, both security forces and civilians, in the most dastardly of ways must have taught us a lesson, so I thought, but no, we appear to continue to drive this wrecked train we call Sierra Leone over the cliff. This brings me straight to the point that is the focus of this article, instead of us as a nation taking a step back, engage in a moment of self-reproach, see where we went wrong and try to correct those wrongs, we swiftly shifted the gears and upped the ante. The limitation of rights guaranteed in the 1991 Constitution has shrunk the governance space; freedom of speech and that of assembly have been very much curtailed. Only good governance advocates and some lawyers have consistently called out the authority of state to temper down; people like Marcella Samba, Agustin Sorie Sengbeh Marrah Esq. and Ady Macauley Esq. to name but a few.
Few weeks ago, after women wearing black openly demonstrated in peace they were clobbered and arrested by the Police supposedly for not obtaining a permit to engage in procession pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Public Order Act of 1965 which requires persons organising or involved in procession to notify the Inspector General of Police regarding the procession. A frenzied debate ensued which saw heavy weights in the legal profession going on radio, television and twitter debating the issue. One prominent legal practitioner who offered legal opinion both on twitter and television is Ady Macauley Esq., a fierce critic of this government. In a debate between himself, Umaru Napoleon Koroma Esq., Hindolo Gavao Esq. and Usuf Keketoma Sadi Esq., Ady Macauley Esq. cleverly made a distinction between Protest and processions and he was of the legal opinion that while the Inspector General of Police needs to be notified if a protest takes the form of a procession as required under section A17(1) POA 1965, no notification needs to be given to the Inspector General of Police if the protest is a “Static Protest” i.e. ONE PLACE TIMAP EN PROTEST as this is not a procession as envisaged under Section 17(1). This appears to be a very technical argument but we all know lawyers all over the world thrive on technicality. a lot of legal PR actioners share the same opinion as Ady so why label him an inciter
Just after the protests ended very violently a lot of Ruling Party Government Officials and and their supporters turned their attention and pointed to everything they can find that is not even remotely the cause of the protest as the cause for the said protest; ostrich strategy. This includes pointing fingers at lawyer Ady Macauley Esq. that his legal opinion incited the people to protest. If Ady’s opinion was not considered an incitement at the time he gave it why wait after 4 to make these accusations and why immediately after the protests. Not even a moron in a hurry will consider Ady’s legal opinion an incitement. It is dangerous criminalising Legal opinions, Ady has the right to his legal opinion and some of his accusers who are also lawyers have a right to their own legal opinion, so make all man hol e yone legal opinion. In the United States of America, you have libertarians who argue that their constitution guarantees adult citizens the right to bear arms, have you ever seen anyone one of them accused of criminally inciting mass shootings that are ever present in that country? Please don’t start is here. My only concern is this, history is replete with stories of millions losing their lives and properties all over the world because of name calling and finger pointing, I am sure the brutal consequences associated with the use of the word COLLABORATOR in referring to our fellow citizens are still fresh in our minds. We have to be careful about calling our fellow citizens names and pointing fingers at them
