The struggle by our Party to expose the dishonest and neocolonial stand by Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, former representative of the African Socialist International (ASI) in Sierra Leone who stole a boat motor and other resources slotted for movement organizing work among the oppressed and suffering masses, took a serious turn last week.
On June 5, Bah further exposed his unity with the neocolonial State by bringing the police to the home of Uhuru Movement organizers demanding they appear at the police station for questioning.
The summons letters that Fenty Tholley, Issa Kamara and comrade Lalas received from Bah and the police stated that Chernoh Bah was accusing them of threatening him by phone.
Chernoh unable to speak truth
According to police, Chernoh’s claim is that the comrades had called him and made threats on his life. However, a cursory look online exposes the falsehood of this story as various versions of it appear in different articles and blog postings by Chernoh Bah.
While the story that the police have apparently been given is that threats were made by phone by these three comrades, a posting on Chernoh’s African Socialist Movement site states a completely different one. On his site, he claims that five comrades “attacked my house throwing stones on the windows and the roof of the building.”
Apparently not content with contradicting the story Chernoh told to police, the blog post also contradicts itself. He claims in the post that it was residents who called the police and states that “It has been wrongly reported on the Internet by the Uhuru Movement that we have called the police against individuals who were formerly associated with us.” Then, only two paragraphs later in the statement, Chernoh admits calling the police. “I was later advised by members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to contact the head of the Criminal Investigations Department to tender a report on threats against my life…”
What is interesting is that a June 7 article that appears on allAfrica.com tells another story (http://allafrica.com/stories/201206080291.html). In this story, it is not Uhuru Movement organizers who Chernoh Alpha M. Bah called the police on, but supporters of the All People’s Congress (APC), the ruling party in Sierra Leone.
The article quotes Bah as saying, “I have made a formal complaint to the CID headquarters because I constantly receive telephone calls from people within Allen Town community and these are APC operatives. I know them by their names. Anytime I engage in a radio programme, they will call and use abusive languages against my parents. Only last night, I received another set of text messages from them threatening to kill me.”
It seems that depending on the audience, the narrative from Chernoh Alpha M. Bah changes to facilitate whatever opportunist agenda he has at the moment.
Some have stated that the claims in the media that the fabricated threats are coming from the APC are attempts to galvanize attention and broader support for Chernoh Bah and the National Democratic Alliance that has up to now done poorly in elections.
The NDA suffers from internal contradictions itself as some of its own membership has come out accusing its leaders — including Bah whose name is called specifically — of engaged in tribalist politics inside the organization and misappropriating resources (http://www.sierraexpressmedia.com/archives/34978). This is something that comrades who worked under Chernoh’s leadership in the APSP Sierra Leone also accused him of.
Chernoh unwilling to face people’s power
What is clear, however, is that the charges brought against Uhuru Movement members in Sierra Leone are an attempt to cover Chernoh’s own crimes against the people. It’s a case of a thief crying thief to cover his own guilt.
Chernoh made these charges and brought the police to the homes of these Uhuru Movement members following criticism of his theft of resources that were for development programs the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Program (AAPDEP) is coordinating in Sierra Leone as well as other projects the Uhuru Movement had been engaged in there.
These continuously changing falsified stories are clearly attempts to deflect and avoid the criticisms made of Chernoh’s actions. Instead of seeking the people’s judgment on these matters, Chernoh instead runs to the police.
Instead of being held accountable to the people and the revolution he claims to represent, he would instead continue to attack the people by assaulting the revolution and organizers who are organizing in their interests.
He refuses to answer the people who are requesting the truth about the boat motor, radio transmitter, the land and other resources that he stole. However, he wants them to elect him into parliament.
He not only unites with the State that uses violence or the threat of violence to protect the neocolonial class’ ability to exploit the people, he joins in and utilizes it himself to do just that.
It is clear that Chernoh is no different from the APC and the Sierra Leone People’s Party that he intends to join.
