Sierra Leone police have detained Dr Femi Claudius Cole, Chairperson of the Unity Party and also Chair of the Coalition of Progressive Political Parties (COPPP); and Ms Diana Finda Konomanyi, Eastern Regional Chairman of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC). Although Diana Finda Konomanyi was subsequently released without charge, Femi Claudius Cole and many others are still being held in police custody.
Dr. Dennis Bright, who visited Dr Femi Claudius Cole in custody at the CID, explained that Dr. Claudius Cole accompanied Diana to the CID, where she had been invited for questioning regarding a video she made last week, encouraging her Kono people not to take part in the census.
Although Claudius Cole was not herself invited for interrogation by the police, she was arrested and detained for statements she too had made about the census.
Dr Claudius Cole is understood to have told the police that, if they were going to interrogate her about statements she had made in the media about the census, they needed to present her with the transcript, video or audio as evidence.
According to sources, after communication between the CID and the Attorney General’s office, it was decided that Dr. Claudius Cole should be detained without charge by the police so that they could find the transcript to corroborate their story, however long it takes.
Dr. Dennis Bright said he made some efforts to mediate and have Dr. Claudius Cole released, but the authorities were adamant because they feel slighted by her refusal to be interviewed without the transcript. “We are meeting the Attorney General tomorrow morning at 7.30 aa.m., Dennis Bright said.
Another member of COPPP, APC’s Deputy Organising Secretary, Karamoh Kabba, was also arrested, allegedly for riotous conduct while in a procession that accompanied Diana Konomanyi to the CID.
Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, who went to CID headquarters to speak with Dr Femi Claudius-Cole, said: “I have just left the CID Police Station where I was visiting Madam Femi Claudius-Cole, Acting Chairperson of the Consortium of Progressive Political Parties (COPPP). She went to the CID to accompany Madam Diana Konimany, who was invited for questioning in relation to the Mid-Term Census and was then detained. “Madam Femi is in good spirits, although as I understand it, she has been detained without charge or bail.”
