NPRC victims to take Government to Court

By Elkass I.L.Sannoh

Family members of the twenty nine men and women who were reported executed by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) on 29^th December, 1992 for an alleged coup plot against the Captain Valentine Esegragbo Melvin Strasser led government yesterday told newsmen at the Law Courts Building along Siaka Stevens Street in Freetown that if their concerns are not redressed by the A.P.C Government they would institute a legal action against them.

They made this statement while they were demonstrating with placards carrying different inscriptions calling on the Government to institute an inquest to inquire into why and why their loved ones were brutally murdered without going through trial.

Addressing newsmen the son of one of the victims, Mr. Victor Jarrett Junior who said that his late father was serving in the Sierra Leone Fire force said this was not their first demonstration.

He explained that they first stated their protests during the tenure of the former President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and they have continued to this day but have still not been given the opportunity to hear why their parents were murdered in cold blood.

Mr. Jarrett maintained that they have tirelessly protested to different Embassies and even met with the Speaker of Parliament and the United Nations Representative in Sierra Leone to help them get redress but that all these efforts have not yielded any positive results.

He further explained that the most unfortunate thing was the misconception the public has in believing that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) covered the extra-judicial killings of the fathers, uncles and mothers, referring to this belief as misinformation as the TRC only limited itself to atrocities committed starting from 1996 on to the end of the civil war in 2002.

In his comments, Mr. Moses Lahai sheriff who described himself as a nephew of the late Inspector General of Police Mr. James Bambay Kamara, said that up to this day he shivers when he recalls that his uncle was butchered along with the twenty others. He insisted that the Government must show them the mass grave where their deceased family heads were buried.

Another speaker, Mr. Michael Koroma,  who said he is a cousin of the late Bambay Kamara, pointed out that they have made several pleads to the Human Rights Commission in Sierra Leone and other international human rights organisations to intervene in the matter but that all 5these efforts have proved useless.

He observed that recently the issue of the atrocities committed against the Mao Mao in Kenya by the British citizens came up in a British Court even though the incident occurred over fifty years ago with a verdict passed in favour of the victims.

Mr. Koroma reiterated that their concern was not a witch hunt on any political party as most of those who were part of NPRC regime are serving in the APC Government while other are serving in the opposition SLPP.

“If the truth is not established our fathers will forever be regarded as coupists and that record will adversely affect us and our entire generation,” he pointed out.

He said they will not take the law into their hands but will rely on the Government to give them justice.