FLASHBACK 1964: FREETOWN CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS

A very valuable nostalgic copy. Mamy  Nancy Steel, (powerful womens leader of APC and was in Freetown  Central  one(1). Hadson Taylor, won Central Two (2) as MP for APC in 1967 elections defeate Jonh Nelson Williams,  Hollist, was Editor of Wi Yone - he was the editor (and his Deputy-Mrs Princess Bucknor), arrested  in 1965 for Siditious Libel by the SLPP government. They won their CASE and found NOT GUILTY. This made Sir Albert Margay angry, removed the Chief Justice Sir Samuel Bankole Jones and 'Promoted' him as President of the Court of Appeal, then appointed his junior Barrister in Sir Albert Margai's Chambers,  Gershon Colier in his place.  These where ALL important players in the APC in those days gone by. Siaka Stevens was then Mayor of Freetown 1964 -1966.

     Mrs NANCY STEEL (Nancy Grant)

    Mr J Hadson-Taylor (First APC Minister of         Information &Broadcasting)

    Mr S G Hollist (Editor of We Yone - APC            News Paper)

    Hon J B Amara - APC Executive Member.

23 MARCH 1971- A day I will never forget- Attempted Assination of Dr. SIAKA STEVENS (First Published March 2011)

Clunk Link below:

Bangura Coup

https://youtu.be/H2G5aO4W3UU

23rd MARCH 1971- The day the Force Commander, Brigadier John Bangura showed his disloyalty to then PRIME MINISTER Dr. Siaka Stevens and to Sierra Leone. I will never forget that day. I was leaving at Henry Street in Freetown with my four younger sisters. They will not let me out that morning. After the initial NIGHT of heavy shooting which turned out to be an assassination attack on Dr. Stevens's life at his residence at King Harman Road, led by Major Jawara, I left the house and together with the Late Hon. JOHN KANU at Niaimbana Street, we picked up his car and collected Mama Princess. Bucknor (of The APC Office). We drove to Brookfields towards the Dr. Stevens resident; the soldiers did not allow us. We moved towards Congo Cross and saw Lieutenant Colonel Sam King, and others in a Land Rover driving fiercely through Congo Cross Road towards Town. It was confusing! We ended up in a Hon. Minister's house at Wilkinson Road (Name withheld - He was later demoted). He was as confused as us. We left back into Town. I then went to my workplace at Standard Bank, by which time loads of soldiers were marching into town. I advised my General Manage in fear, to shut up shop and all staff ordered not to leave until we all helped each other to finish whatever job they were doing and closed the Bank. By that time soldiers were all over town, and a resumption of shooting, attacking the PM at his office up Tower Hill by Paramount Hotel - the old office of Sir Milton Margai -the first Prime Minister. 

My Cousin - in - Law, the Late Lawyer Kanji Alpha Daramy, Minister of Information (formerly Minister of Development and Economic Planning - the replacement of the earlier sacked Prof Solomon A J Pratt ) was among those with the Prime Minister- but they all survived this deadly second phase. It was still very confusing as it was Sam King who introduced Brigadier John Bangura before he made his 'TAKE OVER' speech at about 3 pm. So, who was in charge? It became clearer when Sam King and other senior officers staged a counter operation and arrested John Bangura and spoke to the Nation DISSOCIATING themselves from coup attempt later that day. 

I had to make my way home via Circular Road - a round trip - through the back streets, for fear of the soldiers and their guns the types of some I had never seen before. An expatriate had been shot and killed near the American Embassy.It was a RELIEF to hear the PM Siaka Stevens' voice after Sam King and Tom Caulker, and the second broadcast at about 8pm was all inspiring and assuring. The SLBS played its part that day.

I will never forget that day. Brigadier John Bangura was Executed in April 1971 for this Coup attempt - A SAD PATCH in our COUNTRY'S HISTORY.

Sir Albert Margai and the West 1967 Elections (First Published 2016)

Did Westerners Fool Sir Albert In 1966 , Or Was It Another Dumb SLPP Politicking That Boomeranged ?

POSTED BY: PUBLISHER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER KABS KANU MAY 15, 2016

By  Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu

HERE IS A VERY interesting piece of news I found in the August 18, 1966 issue of the Daily Mail.

Freetown passed a vote of confidence on the PM , SIR ALBERT MARGAI and his SLPP government and assured the Pa that they will support his government in whatever way possible, just 7    months before the epic 1967 General Elections that changed Sierra Leone forever. 

 

SIR ALBERT MARGAI

The vote of confidence was signed by politicians, ministers of the gospel, businessmen , youths and people from all walks of life, according to the Daily Mail. 

I can imagine how Pa Shaki, S.I. , C.A, Bangali Mansaray, S.B. Kawusu-Konte  and others felt with this development, given that the APC needed to win Freetown to stand any chance in the elections. Did it put fear in them ? Only God knows.

The so-called vote of confidence from the Western Area which the PM  valued and believed so much he handed to the Governor-General, Sir Henry Lightfoot-Boston, turned to be a ruse, because in the elections that followed 7 months later, the then opposition APC completely  swept the votes in Freetown  and the SLPP hardly won a seat there. In fact, it was from the results coming from Freetown that the PM  smelt the rat that his world was completely caving in, under his disbelieving eyes.

The SLPP lost the elections  with costs and had to invite the Force Commander Brigadier David Lansana, an in-law of the PM, to stage a coup, a development that our country is still suffering from today, 49 years after. The 1967 coup and what followed retarded our country in a way that is unimaginable.

Was Sir Albert fooled by the Creoles or was he lying ?

As a cub journalist then, writing under the pen name SAM BLUNT at the age of 12, on the same year I entered secondary school , I can sill remember  what happened. The vote of confidence could not have reflected the true picture of what was going on  because it had come to a time in 1966 when the PM was being booed on the streets and even angry women were turning  their backs on him and prostrating . The Creoles had disliked Sir Albert like the dirt under their shoes because he had been accused of marginalizing them and putting Mendes in all positions in the Civil Service and MDAs.The opposition newspapers,                                               Shekpendeh, Think, Awoko, Scope and We Yone were slaughtering him like somebody without an owner. So from where did the vote of confidence come when de Pa had become so unpopular?

SHAKI : HE WAS NOT A UNIVERSITY GRADUATE BUT WAS SMARTER THAN THE SLPP

One year afer this vote of confidence, the Prime Minister was in detention at Pademba Road Prisons appearing before the Forster Commission of Inquiry which was set up by the NRC military regime to investigate corruption in his government, and he was being booed to the rafters by huge Freetown crowds that gathered outside the hall every morning to catch a glimpse of him and his ministers being led to the Commission.

Did the Western Area fool the PM ?

If indeed 1966 /67 set the tone for today’s political realities in Sierra Leone, this incident is very important because, fundamentally, it exposes the differences between the SLPP and the APC.