Police Declares Musa Dumbuya Wanted
Following the event of August 10 2022, where several protesters were gunned down and some 6 police officers killed, the Sierra Leone Police has been storming residents believed to be opposition members and arresting people. In some cases, they were accompanied by ruling party youths (thugs), who unleashed mayhem on several communities, including Calaba Town, Wellington and Kissy, believe to be strongholds of the opposition party.
According to the police, several people have been arrested and others declared wanted, allegedly for planning the demonstration that turned violent. Among those wanted is one Musa S. Dumbuya, the brother of the main opposition party’s (APC) aspiring Secretary General and head of its Legal Team. This development has been greatly criticized by the main opposition party as a ploy to target its members and known supporters.
According to sources, Musa was part of the protesters who were calling for a change in the cost of living of ordinary Sierra Leoneans, a common call by the demonstrators, which resulted in angry state police firing tear gas and live bullets at the demonstrators, and the death of over 25 civilians and 6 police officers. As a curfew was declared to calm the situation, eye witnesses disclosed that state security and ruling party thugs stormed the homes of supporters of the main opposition party, especially in eastern and central Freetown, brutalizing inmates, as well as taking along perceived perpetrators of the protest. It was also disclosed by many family members of those taken away that the whereabouts of their family members have not been known. Furthermore, there were reports of extra-judicial killing of some of these people.
Family members of Musa Sorie Dumbuya disclosed to this medium that Musa had taken his three kids, Juliet, Aziz and Aminata, and left the house, when information reached him that he is being sought after by the police on allegation that he was one of the ring-leaders and planners of the violent demonstration, as the government had described all the demonstrators as terrorists. It was also disclosed by eye witnesses that Musa’s home at Kissy was attacked and vandalized by ruling party youths in the presence of the police, who went there in search of him. Neighbors said that most of them fled their houses for fear that the police and youths will turn on them, as they were all seen as sympathizers of the opposition party. It is against this backdrop that Musa Dumbuya, being the younger brother of the opposition party’s senior member of its legal team, became target, and had to flee with his kids to save his life.
Furthermore, news that most of opposition party members had taken refuge in the Northern city of Makeni, the main stronghold of the party, several arrests and extra-judicial killings were carried out, and the number of those killed are yet unknown.
Since August 10, the police have declared several individuals wanted and even put a bounty on their heads, one of whom is Musa Sorie Dumbuya. As we go to press, the whereabouts of Musa and his kids are unknown, and the police have mounted a man-hunt for Musa and others.
