Political Unrest in Sierra Leone's Kono District.

Notorious APC Thug Adamu
Arrested in Kono

Vultures feeding on Vultures in Sierra Leone

Those who hail from Kono district in Eastern Sierra Leone are no strangers to the name Adamu Ezei

A country with a long history of political thuggery, Adamu is a notorious brutal political thug loyal to Sierra Leone's ruling All 

Peoples Congress (APC) party who in the past was given free rein to harass and intimidate members of the political opposition in the diamond rich Kono district. With the support of the country's top politicians, he was only willing to carry out is campaign of violence with ruthless efficiency.

From leading attacks on innocent civilians, to throwing human excrement on perceived enemies, there has been no act of wanton cruelty too small for Adamu to perform, with the full backing of the Kono big bosses. All complaints against this notorious thug have been summarily dismissed as he was seen as a prime government asset in a district whose loyalty was equally divided between the ruling party and the opposition. Kono is a district that has provided more to the economy of Sierra Leone than any other district in the country, but it has been also one of the most neglected as the wealth of the district has benefited mostly people who have no affinity to the area. Adamu has been a primary tool to keep the peaceful people of this district under control through a systematic campaign of ruthlessness. 

Embattled Vice President Sam Sumana

Unfortunately for Adamu, he seems to have taken the wrong side in the long running conflict between Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma and his Vice President Chief Sam Sumana. It seems at the moment that Adamu's luck may have temporarily run out.

In the campaign to find someone to replace President Ernest Bai Koroma at the end of his tenure or to find people willing to risk their reputations to advocate for another term for him in spite of the fact that he has reached his constitutionally mandated two term limit, the Vice President, who has a very weak base of support in the ruling party, has been completely marginalized and largely ignored.

Since 2013 the Vice President has stopped representing the President at state and international functions and even in the huge national fight against Ebola in the country he has been totally  sidelined. Reliable sources in Sierra Leone state that the ambition of the Vice President to succeed his boss has been the main problem, as President Ernest Bai Koroma wants to either stay as President for more terms or he wants to be replaced by someone in his inner circle, or someone who would be more pliable, the list of which does not include Vice President Sam Sumana.

Karamoh Kabba (sonkor sonkor)

To further weaken the Vice President, his public adversaries from his own home district Kono, the home of the President's own wife, have been awarded ministerial positions in the government and are now closer to the President than the estranged Vice President. The Vice President's political adversaries from Kono such as Balogun Koroma, Diana Konomanyi and Karamoh Kabba are all ministers in the country now, and are just too willing to jump at every available opportunity to publicly humiliate Vice President Chief Sam Sumana.

Over the past week, the political tensions and rivalry between the Kono politicians reached a new high when the sister of the Vice President Sia Sumana was arrested along with many people seen as supporters of the VP in Kono. These arrests were publicly  endorsed by the Deputy Minister of Political and Public Affairs,  Karamoh Kabba, who said that the arrests were actually ordered by the Vice President for what Minister Kabbah called the recent "sonkor sonkor" or riots in Kono.

According to Minister Karamoh Kabba, there had been people doing unlawful rioting in Kono headed by the notorious Adamu who is close to the Vice President. The story is that Adamu's mother had been infacted with the Ebola virus, but he had refused to hand over his mother to government authorities who he no longer trusted. It was rumored that his action has caused a lot of people to bwe affected and he was therefore a wanted man.  Adamu and his supporters it is rumored have been doing unlawful assemblies in Kono and Karamo Kabba said that the Vice President himself had given orders to the police Local Unit Commander (LUC) to arrest them. This statement was denied by the Vice President in a telephone conference with Kono descendants in the diaspora and he said that Karamoh Kabba was behind many of the local instability in the region.

According to Minister Kabba, the Vice President's sister,  had unfortunately been among the rioters and had also been arrested.The government had also put a bounty of 5 million Leones on the head of Adamu who was said to be on the run and was to be considered very dangerous. Minister Karamoh Kabba said that people should see Adamu as a threat, as he was armed with a gun and likely infected with the Ebola virus, since his mother had recently died from infection with Ebola virus disease and Adamu had been in contact with her.

 Karamoh Kabba himself had traveled to Kono to ensure that these arrests were made. He said he was just carrying out the orders of the Vice President.

President Ernest Bai Koroma

This morning the Segbwema blog was informed that Adamu, who according to the minister was infected with Ebola was arrested in Kono. Those arresting the alleged Ebola suspect did not have on any hazmat suits nor were they wearing gloves or any other protective gear.

People in Kono probably knows that Adamu was not infected with Ebola, yet the country's  Minister of Presidential and Public Affairs would not hesitate to go on radio and make this outrageous claim, even though he knew that this would contribute to the overall confusion surrounding a disease that has taken such a heavy toll on the lives of the ordinary citizens in the  country.

Ebola Deaths Continue

Sierra Leone, poor as it is, does not deserve this current catastrophe masquerading as a government. President Koroma's inability to control his appointees has made the country the laughingstock of West Africa. From the scandalous behavior of the recently resigned Special Executive Assistant to the President Blyden, to sending the country's football team to games with different sets of match officials sent by the government and the members of the country's football association, to ministers raping students for scholarships or the President's special assistant forging his signature to engage in corruption, Sierra Leone after so many years of war and turmoil deserve so much better.

Sierra Leone as a country deserves so much better and people are just praying for the day this temporary insanity will come to an end. Meanwhile we will keep monitoring the situation in Kono for our audience in the diaspora.