Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah, has debunked ongoing claims that there are still over 200 political prisoners in the country.

These claims have continued to surface despite the provision under Resolution 4(b) of the Agreement of National Unity, signed between the government of Sierra Leone and the All People’s Congress (APC) party.

Minister Bah addressed the allegations directly, stating that both the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the APC had conducted checks and found that none of the alleged political prisoners were ever in jail.

“Both the SLPP and APC, they checked and those people were not in prison,” Bah explained. “None of them even spent time in prison or were arrested, and no records of them exist.”

Related News

The Minister also reassured the public that those who had been previously detained had already been released. “Nobody was killed in prison, and none were hidden away in prison,” he added, urging people to understand the truth of the matter.

Bah also spoke about the growing conversation regarding the number of political prisoners, which he described as misleading. “The conversation or sayings around were going like we held so many political prisoners,” he said. “The important thing is that when they checked, only 13 people met the criteria, and these included individuals from the APC, SLPP, and Civil Society. It was confirmed after checking that these were the only cases.”