by Fatima Babih, EdD

What is unfolding in Sierra Leone’s drug crisis is beyond incompetence, negligence, and lack of capacity. It is State protection. It is State facilitation. Most of all, it is State complicity.

The government of Julius Maada Bio is not fighting the war on drugs; it is waging war on those who are fighting the drug crisis; it is acting as a partner to the drug lords and traffickers.

Exhibit A: Government Tries to Silence Mayor

When the Mayor of Freetown recently revealed on AYV Television that 220 corpses, possibly linked to the deadly kush epidemic, had been collected off the streets of Freetown this year alone, the Ministry of Local Government did not sound an alarm.

Instead, an appointed permanent secretary of the Bio Ministry of Local Government issued a threat against the people’s elected Mayor, through a cold, bureaucratic intimidation letter, demanding she justify her statement within five days or face consequences.

No condolences for the lost lives of citizens. No request for an emergency meeting. No address to the nation.

Just political panic that a competent female Mayor from the opposition party had dared to make the Bio Paopa regime look bad.

Exhibit B: Mayor’s Response Exposed the Cover-Up with Data

Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s response to the Ministry was not emotional; it was professional and devastating to the Bio regime:

• She provided a whole spreadsheet of 220 corpses collected from the streets of Freetown.
• She revealed that she had already written a letter in 2022 to the Ministry of Interior, copied to Local Government, requesting collaboration on the issue.
• She stated that the number of corpses on the streets has exploded from under 50 bodies collected on the streets yearly to over 220 in the last 10 months alone; a death wave the Bio government denies and has done nothing to confront.

The Mayor then delivered the nail in the coffin:

Freetown City Council will no longer retrieve dead bodies unless the central government tells us who we should report to.

Translation: We will no longer help you hide the death toll of citizens in our city!!

Exhibit C: Too Many “Coincidences”

1. To begin with, Europe’s most wanted fugitive drug kingpin, Jos Leijdekers aka Bolle Jos, is reportedly living freely in Sierra Leone and protected by the Bio regime. 
2. Furthermore, the President’s daughter, Agnes Bio, is reportedly dating Bolle Jos and allegedly gave birth to his child recently in New York, where her father appointed her to represent Sierra Leone at the United Nations.
3. What about the case of the Sierra Leone Ambassador to Guinea, who was caught with tons of cocaine in his embassy vehicle. Coincidence?
4. Also inside the Bio regime, a minister, Alusine Kanneh, was caught on video receiving a birthday gift from drug lord Bolle Jos during his tenure as the Minister of Immigration. Given this closeness between Europe’s fugitive drug lord and Sierra Leone’s government official, is it a coincidence that Bolle Jos now allegedly holds a Sierra Leonean passport under the alias Omar Sheriff?
5. In a recent Parliamentary session, the Speaker of Parliament, Segepoh Solomon Thomas, was heard on video urging the MPs and the public to exercise restraint when discussing the kush issue on social media; that the level at which we are propagating SierraLeone as a drug nation is not like that. His statement was perceived to be an effort to silence people, especially MPs and journalists, who are speaking out on the country’s drug crisis.
6. Last week, a young man (kush survivor) representing a youth group that wanted to do a peaceful march against drug infestation in the country, went to the Inspector General (IG) of Police to seek a permit. The IG responded not only by denying him the permit but also by threatening him with jail time if a single person showed up on the streets for a protest. He also forbade the young man from sharing the denial letter on social media, or face arrest.
7. A few days ago, Julius Bio’s incompetent and callous Chief Minister, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh, was also heard on AYV Television downplaying the country’s drug crisis and its toll on the youth. He went as far as saying that all the reports we see about the drug crisis in Sierra Leone are not real; that they are propagated AI robots paid for by the opposition APC party to spread such rumors to damage the image of his regime. Incompetence or outright cover-up?
8. A few days ago, newspapers reported a 40-foot container of illegal drugs “disappeared” from Queen Elizabeth II Quay, the country’s national port that Maada Bio’s biological brother is conveniently controlling.

How Many “Coincidences” Make a Cartel? 

At This Point, this Question Is No Longer Absurd. It Is Necessary

Is Julius Maada Bio ruling Sierra Leone under a drug empire with the full protection of State institutions and resources as shield?

And if that question sounds extreme to you, please explain why,

• Anyone in the country who speaks up against the drug crisis is silenced with threats by government officials
• Anyone in the Bio network who is caught with drugs or connections to the drug lord is protected, not prosecuted.
• The number of dead youth collected from the streets is rising, and Julius Maada Bio, as President, has not declared a national day of mourning.

Meanwhile, Bio government officials have time, energy, and resources to harass a mayor for doing her job right and telling the public the truth that impacts their lives.

This Is No Longer a Drug Crisis in Sierra Leone

This is a cartel government’s war on the youth of Sierra Leone.

This is state-sponsored genocide of a generation.

This is not a public health emergency; it is a calculated and well-organized state criminality masquerading as governance.

And Now the People Must Decide

Remain silent and die slowly and quietly.

Or

Demand the one thing narco-regimes like the Paopa regime in Sierra Leone fear more than anything: An Independent international investigation, under neutral and foreign supervision, into Maada Bio, his family, his ministers, and every missing container of drugs at our seaport.

Silence is now evidence.

Silence is now consent.

Silence is now complicity.

Sierra Leoneans must speak up now or forever lose our sovereignty and face harsh consequences.