BAIL IS A CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARD
By admin In 2015, under the APC administration of former President Ernest Bai Koroma, I was arrested in circumstances that can only be described as a grave abuse of state power. With the cooperation of willing hands within the system, bail was denied and I was consigned to Pademba Road Prison. The Constitution was side-lined. Due process was bent. Justice was distorted to serve expediency.
At that moment, it was not party loyalty that mattered—it was principle. Supporters of the SLPP stood up with courage and conviction to demand fairness. Even within the APC, voices of conscience rose in protest, including principled party members and senior legal minds who understood that the denial of bail is not justice; it is punishment without trial.
Today, history echoes loudly.
The APC’s National Secretary General, Lansana Dumbuya, is being held at Pademba Road Prison, accused of insulting President Julius Maada Bio, among other charges. While I do not condone the conduct alleged, we must resist the dangerous temptation to mistake vengeance for justice.
Let us be clear and uncompromising: withholding bail is not a right vested in political actors, prosecutors, or public sentiment. It is not a tool for humiliation. It is not a weapon to be brandished against opponents. Bail is a constitutional safeguard.
Bail is not acquittal.
Bail is not endorsement.
Bail is the constitutional guarantee that liberty is not extinguished before guilt is proven.
Bail is not endorsement.
Bail is the constitutional guarantee that liberty is not extinguished before guilt is proven.
To deny bail as a reflex—especially in non-capital matters—is to trample on the very foundation of the rule of law. It is to announce that power, not principle, governs our courts. That is a road we have walked before, and it led only to injustice and national fracture.
Let Lansana Dumbuya be granted bail while his case proceeds before the courts. Let him answer to the law in open court, as every citizen of our Republic is entitled to do. By virtue of his public office, fixed abode, and standing, he is not a flight risk. Preventive detention in such circumstances is neither necessary nor lawful—it is punitive.
Those who believe that denying bail is their prerogative should be reminded: the Constitution is not suspended by political rivalry, public anger, or executive discomfort. Today it may be your opponent. Tomorrow it could be you.
The SLPP must always stand on the higher ground—constitutional order, democratic maturity, and national unity. Power is best proven by restraint. Authority is strongest when it defends the rights of those with whom it disagrees.
Let us lead by example.
Let us stand for principle, not passion.
Let us protect the Constitution, not politicize it.
Let us stand for principle, not passion.
Let us protect the Constitution, not politicize it.
One Country… One People!
Everyone In… No One Out!
Everyone In… No One Out!
