By: Saidu Jalloh
The Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah has in a government weekly press briefing confirmed that Amadu Koita one of the alleged coup planners and leader of the November 26th fail attempted was arrested in the Tree Planting neighborhood in Freetown.
Before the confirmation, there were lots of speculations surrounding Koita, but it has finally being confirmed that Koita was actively participated in the fail attempted coup.
‘’I would confirm that Amadu Koita was arrested yesterday at the Tree Planting Community at around 11:30 pm,’’ he explained. The Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah expressed his appreciation to the people of Sierra Leone and particularly the Tree Planting Community who provided the intelligence that led to the arrest of Koita.
He also informed the public that there is a handsome reward of 50,000 New Leones to anyone who provides information about the whereabouts of any of the fugitives. He also commended the security forces for their bravery to arrest Koita without anyone injured or shot a gun.
Mr. Bah also commented on the curfew in which he said it the curfew which made it possible for the security forces to apprehend Koita. ‘’I want people to understand that this is the reason His Excellency did not lift the curfew so that those renegade will be captured,’’ he explained.
Mr. Bah continued that Koita was harbored by a female police officer by name of Alimatu Hassan Bangura, a sergeant of the Sierra Leone Police 14120 and she was part of the Interpol section of CID and was also part of the West Africa Police Information System. Alimatu had also been arrested and she is helping the police with investigation.
Mr. Bah also confirmed that in the same building were Koita was harbored, there was another police officer living in that building by the name of inspector John Kamara attached at the New England Police and he had also been arrested to help the Sierra Leone police with investigation.
He also provided information of the number of suspect of the November 26th fail coup that is presently in the custody of the police. He said are 57, among the 57, there were 37 RSLAF, number of dismissed and retired RSLAF 4, number of retired police officer 1, number of civilians 10, number police personnel 5.
The minister also explained that 23 of the suspect had been interrogated and their statement had been handover to the public prosecutor of the Judiciary of Sierra Lone. He also mentioned the names of the suspects in custody. He concluded by explaining the circumstances surrounding the death of Steven Douglas, an international journalist and a Canadian citizen. He confirmed that, according to the postmortem, Steven Douglas died of Heart Attack on the said fail coup.
