These courts are waiting for the suspects in the SLPP and APC parties, plus others that betrayed democracy and the electoral process and committed other heinous crimes. The top guns in the ruling SLPP/Paopa regime and the APC Executives who continue to collaborate with bad governance and misrule shall surely face accountability in the not too distant future.

Keeping the Flame of Justice burning in Freetown is no child’s play. It is a monumental task undertaken by the global community to use Sierra Leone as a precedent for other nations to know that justice, no matter how long it takes, shall be adjudicated. Victims of heinous crimes ranging from rights abuses, genocide, crimes against humanity to rape, murders, etc. will get justice. (Photo: Justice Winter lighting the Flame of Justice in Freetown).

No one should underestimate the seriousness with the international community has attached to the Flame of Justice that is burning brightly in Sierra Leone today. After ten years after the last Flame of Justice was extinguished, the Special Court and ICC have lit it up again in February, 2024 to try those who bear the greatest responsibilities inside the SLPP and the APC against the people of Sierra Leone.

Top legal minds inside and outside the country have no doubt that the Flame of Justice was not lit in Freetown for exhibition or a mere bluff. The foreign Justices who came to reopen the Special Court and the ICC offices did so primarily to try future cases, serious cases committed before, during and after the fraudulent June 24, 2023 elections in Sierra Leone. (Photo: Late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at Special Court in Freetown).

This legal framework was exacerbated in the aftermath of various petitions filed by Sierra Leoneans residing in the Diaspora who have had enough of the human rights violations and other horrible crimes against the innocent people of Sierra Leone ostensibly committed by bad politicians from both the ruling SLPP regime and supported by some rogue elements in the opposition APC party.

It is an indisputable fact that justice shall surely be administered for the victims who had suffered heinous crimes that took place under the brutal SLPP regime of Julius Maada Bio in the last six years of misrule and maladministration to have the last laugh. Justice that is due, the victims must be given to them and the perpetrators must be brought to book without fear or favour.

What bothers decent Sierra Leoneans is the outright dishonesty being shown by the reckless Bio presidency that deliberately refused to tell its citizenry the whole truth about the Flame of Justice. Total silence from State House and the Presidential Lodge has greeted the Special Court and the ICC as to why the development partners decided to light the Flame of Justice. Even the bad officials in the APC are mute.

The flame for justice lit in Freetown a few months ago is no child’s play. The seriousness attached to the lightening of the Flame for Justice at the compound of the Special Court and the ICC cannot be overemphasised. Also, the seriousness with which the global partners put behind the hoisting of the ICC flag and the Special Court flag is reassuring for justice. (Photos: Maada Bio will face trial and Dr Samura Kamara is the President-Elect).

The phrase ‘Those Who Bear the Greatest Responsibilities’ has been used and overused repeatedly over the years as far back as the late nineties and the turn of the century that born the Truth and Reconciliation Commission TRC Report culminating from the 11 years of bloody civil war when many key players in the conflict were pardoned but with only a handful of them who faced justice.

Today, some of those who survived by escaping justice due to the TRC Amnesty nonsense like Maada Bio and his SLPP cohorts and institutions such as the notorious 98.1FM Radio Democracy have re-emerged in different attires to continue their bloodthirstiness and anti-democratic and selfish agendas. Now, they have regrouped themselves to undermine electoral justice and the process in the last six years.

Many prominent names from the political divide have resurfaced to destroy democracy and constitutional rule. The bad news for them is that this time around, there would be no amnesty for suspects caught aiding and abetting heinous crimes. Hundreds of names from the SLPP regime and the main opposition APC party have made the ICC and Special Court list. (Photo: APC Executives Chericoco, Yansaneh and Minkailu will face the music).

Following the June 24, 2023 fraudulent elections, which the APC leader Dr Samura Kamara won but were stolen by Maada Bio in connivance with the corrupt APC Executives, accountability will take place The Special Court and the ICC have reportedly drafted in APC Executives Minkailu Mansaray, Osman Yansaneh, Lansana Dumbuya, Chernor Bah Chericoco etc. to face trial for betraying electoral justice.

Twelve foreign Justices excluding Sierra Leone Judges were inducted earlier this year in preparation for Special Court and ICC cases. Maada Bio knows that seek for justice is hanging over his head and would be immediately arrested when removed from power. There are many people, especially the SLPP supporters, who still believe that Bio, will continue in power.

But there are Paopa supporters who are now having second thought about Maada Bio. There is no country in the world that would entertain a political party that loses elections and stole it yet expects to be congratulated for losing and stealing the elections. The Flame of Justice is ready to burn the suspects who had destroyed the lives of innocent compatriots.