Mayor of Freetown to meet with the August 10 Special Investigation Committee

The Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE, has been invited to meet with the Special Investigation Committee on the incident of August 8 -10, 2022, in Freetown and other parts of the country. The release dated January 6, 2023, was signed by Lawrence L Bassie, the committee’s secretary.

The Special Investigation Committee was set up by President Julius Maada Bio after heavy violence erupted in Freetown and in some parts of Northern Sierra Leone, to look into the disruption that led to the loss of the lives of civilians and Police officers.

The committee is headed by human rights lawyer and governance expert, Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai Esq., supported by other representatives from various walks of life, which include the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, the Inter-Religious Council, Defence for Children International, the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion and others.

The government has on multiple occasions, including the president’s address to the nation in the aftermath of that, accused members of the main opposition party, the All People’s Congress of being the orchestrators of the insurrection, with fingers pointed at Mayor Akie-Sawyerr multiple times on national television and on social media.

Mayor Aki-Sawyer denied having anything to do with this in an interview with the BBC. She will meet the committee on January 17, 2023, at the NaCOVERC headquarters in Freetown.

The committee in its investigations has similarly spoken to mobile companies, political party leaders and residents in some of the parts of Sierra Leone that experienced the most horrific violence in what could be termed as the most fatal violence in recent history.