Lucy Baindu Koroma: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 06 March 2026:
Your Excellency Julius Maada Bio, I write to you today not as a partisan voice, not as someone who endorses every word spoken at every rally, but as a Sierra Leonean woman who believes deeply in the promise of New Direction and who holds you personally to the standard of leadership you publicly proclaimed.
I write with the respect your office deserves and with the directness that this moment demands.
The international community is watching. Diaspora Sierra Leoneans are talking. Our mothers, sisters, and daughters across Sierra Leone and beyond are asking a question that deserves a clear answer: why is Zainab Sheriff still sitting in a cell?
On January 31, 2026, Zainab Sheriff, known and loved by many as “De Mammy nar Pawa,” spoke at an APC rally at Atouga Mini Stadium. She is a cultural icon, a mother, a community advocate, and the Chairperson of the “Wi Duti” movement. Whatever one may think of her words that day, Zainab Sheriff is a citizen of this republic and is entitled to the full protection of its Constitution.
Following that rally, Zainab Sheriff was declared wanted by the Sierra Leone Police under warrant W/A 105/2026. She was arrested, held for 72 hours at the Criminal Investigation Department, formally charged with incitement and threatening language, and brought before Magistrate Brima Jah at Pademba Road Court No. 1 on February 23, 2026.
Bail was denied, and she was remanded to the Female Correctional Facility. As of the writing of this letter, Zainab Sheriff remains in that facility.
Zainab Sheriff pleaded not guilty. The prosecution was not even prepared to present evidence in court. Yet the court declared the case was at a “crucial stage” and denied bail regardless.
Your Excellency, the Criminal Procedure Act of 2024 makes bail the default for offences of this nature unless the prosecution can demonstrate, through affidavit, compelling reasons to deny bail.
The prosecution did not meet that standard. The law was not followed in its spirit, and a woman sits in Pademba Road Prison as the consequence.
Zainab Sheriff is not the only person affected. The APC Secretary General Lansana Dumbuya, was also denied bail and remanded to Pademba Road Prison for statements made at the very same January 31 rally.
A troubling pattern is forming, one that the region and the international community are noticing.
When political speech, even speech that is heated, provocative, or uncomfortable, results in citizens being detained before trial and denied bail, we are no longer talking about law enforcement. We are talking about silencing.
The most respected legal voices in Sierra Leone have spoken. Civil society organizations have added their voices. Amnesty International has weighed in.
Entertainers, artists, and public figures who are not opposition partisans have called for Zainab Sheriff’s constitutional rights to be upheld.
The Sierra Leone Telegraph, analysts, and concerned citizens at home and in the diaspora are raising their voices in unison. When so many people from so many corners of society are saying the same thing, Your Excellency, it is time to listen.
You have stood on platforms across this country and across the world declaring your commitment to women’s empowerment and girls’ education. You have championed the Hands Off Our Girls initiative.
You have spoken of democracy, of dignity, and of a Sierra Leone where every citizen has a voice. I believe you meant every word of those public commitments.
Now is the time to demonstrate that those commitments are real by ensuring that Zainab Sheriff receives the constitutional right to bail.
Zainab Sheriff is a woman. She is a mother. She is in a correctional facility, not because evidence has been presented against her, not because she poses a danger to anyone, but because the system, perhaps emboldened by proximity to state power, chose detention over due process.
If your government truly champions women, then the protection of women cannot be selective. The protection of women cannot apply only to women who agree with you.
Freedom of speech comes with responsibility. Every Sierra Leonean understands that responsibility. No one writing these words is dismissing the gravity of incitement or the importance of maintaining peace in our fragile democracy.
But responsibility cuts both ways. Governments are responsible too. Judiciaries are responsible too. When the arm of the law is used not to uphold justice but to punish political opposition, the result is not accountability. The result is repression.
Your Excellency, the people are not asking you to pardon Zainab Sheriff. They are not asking you to declare her innocent. They are asking you to let the law work as it was written. They are asking for bail to be granted so that Zainab Sheriff, like any other citizen charged but not yet convicted, can defend herself while living freely among her family. They are asking the judiciary, which must be independent, but which operates within a climate your administration sets, to process this case without undue delay.
Cases languishing in our courts while accused citizens sit in cells are not justice. Holding a person in detention before a verdict has been rendered is punishment without proof. The 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone enshrines the presumption of innocence.
The presumption of innocence is not a slogan. It is a guarantee, and that guarantee must mean something for every Sierra Leonean, regardless of which party card they carry.
History will not remember you for the elections you won. History will remember you for what you did with the power those elections gave you.
History will ask whether you protected the voices that disagreed with you, whether you allowed the courts to operate freely, and whether women were truly safe under your watch. Not just safe from violence against women and girls, but safe to speak, safe to participate in politics, and safe to stand at a rally and make their voices heard without ending up behind bars.
The test before you right now is not a complicated one. Passing that test does not require legislation, summits, or international agreements.
It requires a judiciary that is allowed to function fairly and without fear. It requires that your administration sends a loud and clear message that detention is not a tool of political management.
Let Zainab Sheriff go home while her case is heard. Let every Sierra Leonean, opposition or ruling party, woman or man, see that New Direction still means something. Do not let the story of your presidency be that women who spoke against you suffered while the system looked away.
Sierra Leone is watching. The diaspora is watching. Jummah Mubarak, His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, with respect, conviction, and deep love for our nation, Baindu.
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