Makeni Generator Protester declared Wanted

By Amadu Kargbo
Anita Smart Kamara, who was arrested on July 21, 2020 in connection with the generator protest in Makeni, has been declared wanted by the police after escaping from the Pademba Road Correctional Center where she was detained. It could be recalled that some Makeni residents, mainly youths, took to the streets registering their disapproval for the transfer of a generator to Lungi, a generator plant that was supplying electricity in Makeni. The police opened fire on the protesters, resulting to the deaths of some people. Anita, who is a strong member of the current main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party, was arrested with others on that fateful day, and brought to Freetown, where she was detained at the Pademba Road prison without trial. She spent almost two years in detention before she escaped. Some Makeni residents this medium spoke to said that this Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) regime used the generator protest to target mainly northerners, especially people from Makeni, the Northern headquarter town of the APC stronghold in Sierra Leone; and that state security forces used disproportionate force on unarmed protesters who were merely registering their disapproval for taking the generator out of Makeni.