There has a been a lot of chatter over the newspapers, the internet and the airwaves in the last week over the "threat" by the APC's chief propagandist I. B. Kargbo to institute a Commission of Enquiry over the "Extra-Judicial Killings" of the then Inspector General of Police, James Bambay Kamara, and 28(?) others by the Valentine Strasser-led National Provisional Reformation Council (NPRC) in December 1992.
The primary premise of the argument has been that this is an attempt by Ernest Koroma's APC to stifle the main opposition SLPP by decapitating its leadership in the person of John O. Benjamin, Leader and Chairman of the Party and, Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio who, according to his supporters, is the front runner to be the SLPP's Presidential Candidate in 2012.
The secondary premise is that any attempt by this government to seek justice for surviving families of those 29(?) people will open old wounds and put the country's hard-won peace in jeopardy and may lead to a tribal conflict, in a country where the flames of tribalism are already being stoked by the APC's apparent inability to attract support, and employ people, from the South and East.
Although these premises are very powerful and possibly true, I believe the conclusions being derived from them to be false. I believe them to be false because the APC is a formidable and cunning beast whose main claim to "success" is its ability to hang on to power even when the odds seem to be stacked against it. This is no mean feat nor is it an accident. It is a product of the Party's structure and reason for being and they have, to date, dwarfed their opponents in the area of strategic planning for elections. The APC knows that elections are not won or lost on election day.
Of all the potential SLPP Presidential candidates with real prospects, Maada Bio carries the most baggage. In fact, I will go further and argue that, of all the Presidential hopefuls, Mr. Bio arguably has the greatest potential to unite and mobilise the Northern vote in favour of the APC. This is based on the fact that people of the North have never forgiven members of the NPRC for those killings and Bio, though he was out of the country at the time, became the focus of that anger.
Why then would the APC want to disqualify Bio by tying the 1992 killings around his ankle even before the SLPP chooses their candidate in 2011? The answer is simple. They don't! It is my belief that the APC wants to force the SLPP to choose Bio as their candidate. The APC believe that by threatening Bio, the people of the South and East will assume the APC felt threatened by Bio's popularity and come to see him as the only viable candidate. Having helped Bio secure the candidacy, they would then procede to discredit him with all the ammunition at their disposal... and let's face it, they have plenty.
So, I ask again. Is Maada Bio being used by the APC?
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Your premise and conclusions completely veered off the road squandering your coveted pen. In the first instance, are you comparing the death of Bambay and the few others to the hundreds of those sent to the guillotine by Bambay and his APC cabal. By contrast the APC regime killed many more and wrecked more homes in their twenty something years of criminal leadership than NPRC. That besides, the killing of Bambay and others was as legitimate as the crimes they awfully committed against the country, and who is IB Kargbo to request such a nonsense prospect.
Well if probity is what we all seem to seek for the good of salone, then lets see what IB Kargbo and his infamous AFRC/RUF coupist did with the slaughter house they created in Freetown .Now Johnny Paul is out i think IBK can stand in and face the inquiry of that regime.
In conclusion, may remind my dear countryman that without the NPRC we may never be where we're today as the APC was never willing to relinquish power for any reason other than maintaining its caboodle looters. Besides its monumental achievements, under such difficult and challenging circumstances, the NPRC, if nothing else, opened our eyes to the solvency of the APC power nonsense.
Bio must be commended for his stoic handling of the affairs of the state and the peaceful handing over to mehadji Tejan - the very man who worked tirelessly to undermine the NPRC. NRPC is yet the best thing to ever happen to mama salone. So please stop the instigation and the sheepish mellow.