Sunday October 30, 2016 - Rehearsal of Sierra Leone's neck-tie party as the rat and his cronies prepare to hang those convicted by a compromised not fit for purpose judiciary.

Its another Sunday, a Holy Day in the Christian calendar that witnesses those of the faith attending places of worship, mainly churches, to give thanks to the Good Lord for His mercies and to ask for divine intervention into problems, both personal and global that would make life worth living.

Among those who would be attending could be found members of the rat's cabal whose main reason for making their way into churches is to con their way into positions of respectability using ill-gotten wealth, stolen from the coffers of the people.

Some would even dare to stand in front of the faithful to perform certain functions ranging from such earthly titles like Grand Chief Patron to whatever flowery and meaningless title that should see them parting with envelopes containing a part of the wealth stolen from the people.

Some would even dare manipulate their way into the functions of churches where they would be called upon to preach the Word to an unsuspecting congregation and who among whom would be some who would be wondering what the House of the Lord had become.

Among them would be the rat's minister who has taken upon himself the role of ensuring that the long dormant gallows at the central prison at Pademba Road in Freetown is oiled and made ready for planned executions, one Palo Conteh, a former operative of the feared Military Intelligence Branch, the MIB.

The MIB where Palo Conteh, a relation of the then President Joseph Saidu Momoh was an arm of the repressive setup that took upon itself not only the role of weeding out perceived enemies of the one party state of the APC, but made it a duty to kidnap and take into custody civilians that individuals and party officials had an axe to grind with. Intimidation and torture were just a part of the modus operandi that would end with victims being forced to admit to crimes they never knew about but which nonetheless made it a tool for getting selected victims to suffer death at the gallows at the central prison in Freetown.

As we had stated before, the hanging ceremony was a party affair where on the day/night decided upon, key functionaries of the APC party would be invited to watch the hanging of those the compromised courts obeying the orders of the APC party, would order dead. No expense was spared. Free drinks of every type were provided and food was in abundance. It was a celebration as prison officials, including the Director of Prison and his top officials were forced to play central roles.

The hanging theatre at the Pademba Road central prison contains one single trap door through which the condemned slipped as their body weight ensured that their spinal cord gets separated from the brain in the countdown to another life snuffed out by the authorities.

Sources close to the central prison say as there was only one set of trap doors there's an hour's pause between the condemned. When on 7th October 1989, the Supreme Court rejected the appeals of former Vice President Francis Misheck Minah and others, the government of the day then wasted no time in carrying out the executions which started at midnight of 7th October and ended at 6am on 8th October with three members of the Kaikai family including one demoted Police top gun, one Gabriel Tennyson Kaikai and one soldier from Makeni Conrad Iniss.

The speed with which the executions were carried out surprised many and as news filtered into town that the former Vice President and the five others condemned with him were facing the gallows, a kind of unease spread throughout the capital.

Those were days that left quite a blot on Sierra Leone's human rights record and it was a silent prayer on the lips of many that such cruel way of snuffing the life out of political and other criminal elements would be at an end with the necessary education and support that would see those prone to wrong-doing being given the necessary counselling and direction.

No official hanging was acknowledged by the APC government since then and just as human rights activists were hoping that the death penalty would be removed from the books comes a rallying cry from someone who people claimed is a UK-trained lawyer, his Chambers and practice still to be revealed. A really UK-trained lawyer gloating over the prospect of hanging people, feeling pleased with himself that somebody's life is to be violently snuffed out? Spare people the falsehood, please.

Pallo Conteh has now thought it fit to tell the whole world that he was getting ready to start another round of executions and was photographed at the central prison overseeing a dress rehearsal for the execution of the condemned as he boasted that he had instructed prison officials to oil and make ready the gallows. Under normal circumstances such action, if deemed necessary is done behind closed doors and not as a photo opportunity.

That he would have dared to do this would mean only one thing. The rat and his cabal have already decided on the people to be hanged and this show of premeditated gore and life-taking could have been given the okay from the highest level - State House.

This is a part of a report that encapsulates it all -

"Sierra Leone’s Internal Affairs Minister Paolo Conteh has told a local radio in Freetown that the death penalty should be reactivated for people found guilty of murder in order to curb gang violence. Sierra Leone still has the death penalty by hanging for those found guilty of murder and treason. But no one has been put to death since 1998.

“I have given instructions to the prison officers to clean and ready the tools and machines used to kill people, as reckless killing is on the increase. We have lost a lot of people through reckless killing and ended wasting resources feeding such prisoners for several years. This is unacceptable,” the minister told Radio Democracy in the capital Freetown.

The minister’s comments come in the midst of an increase in gang and political violence in the country. Last week, two Sierra Leoneans were sentenced to death by hanging after they were found guilty of murdering a popular radio DJ in Freetown.

Conteh, who is also a retired major in the country’s military, said the death penalty will scare others who think taking others lives carelessly is justifiable. “It’s in the bible, an eye for an eye. Our local people say kill a dog in front of another to know that death is real,” the Minister said.

Imagine that it you will.

There was a time when the business of the prisons department was under the portfolio of the Ministry of Social Welfare and so found it strange that an Internal Affairs minister should take it upon himself to usurp the role of another ministry.

Well, under the rat, lawlessness on their behalf is good. On behalf of others it is bad.

We have been receiving reports of some groups of extremely violent gangs calling themselves "cliques" or what have you - groups who have seen state-sponsored violence given free reign and who could have taken the cue that as long as you are in the good books of the powers that be, its back to the AFRC/RUF days of "Kill Man No Law".

The cliques could have seen the rising number of deaths from the guns of Munu's repressive paramilitary police, the OSD. This armed wing of the APC has been implicated in a number of extrajudicial killings - from the Bo violence, through the Bumbuna protests to the Wellington and Kabala murders with none of the killers brought to justice.

The murder of the former retired police officer Conteh and his wife remains fresh in the minds of relations and the public and yet no arrests were made.

The brutal murder of one Mustapha and his female companion remain on the records and despite promises of an impartial and thorough investigation, gang member Munu has not lifted a finger to bring the killers to justice. Could members of the so-called clique have been involved?