By: Kemo Cham in Freetown ,Tuesday, August 13 2013
Trucks full of policemen from the Criminal Investigations Department have ransacked the private office and residence of Sierra Leone’s former junta leader and presidential hopeful (Rtd) Brigadier Julius Maada Bio.
Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP)
The police were searching for offensive weapons allegedly in his possession.
The incident at the office took place just as the 2012 presidential candidate for the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) was about to hold a press conference.
It also followed warning, just hours earlier, from President Ernest Bai Koroma to the opposition party over a longstanding leadership struggle.
The SLPP is due to hold its biennial elective congress this Friday, but an ongoing confrontation between members loyal to Brig. Bio and those associated with the outgoing national chairman of the party, Mr John Oponjo Benjamine, recently took a violent turn.
Warrant of arrest
Supporters of Brig. Bio believe that the other faction within their party has been conniving with the governing All Peoples Congress.
But the President distanced himself from any plan to interfere in the leadership election process of the SLPP.
The government said a meeting arranged at State House which was attended by the SLPP leadership, was summoned in response to intelligence reports suggesting plans to violently disrupt the party’s weekend convention.
Brig. Bio, while denying involvement in any violence, counter-alleged plans by unnamed people to stage a violent operation and to instigate the arrest of his supporters.
He has called on the police to be impartial in their handling of the situation.
Earlier on Sunday, reports cited the head of the CID, Superintendent Ibrahim Koroma, confirming that the police went to the office and residence of the former junta leader in an effort to execute a warrant for the arrest of two of his supporters wanted in a separate matter.
“I personally have nothing to gain from participating in, orchestrating, aiding and abetting, or causing violence in my party and in this country,” Brig. Bio said.
