Sargeants' Coup
Bangura played a pivotal role in the history of post-colonial Sierra Leone. A staunch democrat, he took issue when the government began to collapse after a series of coups that followed the hotly contested elections of March 1967.
Bangura formed the Anti-Corruption Revolutionary Movement (ACRM) with a group of non-commissioned officers. In April 1968, Bangura led the Sargents Coup and overthrew Brigadier Andrew Juxon-Smith and his National Reformation Council (NRC). Bangura arrested every high-ranking officer in the army and police, so that he could restore the constitution and democracy to Sierra Leone.
There was another side of Bangura. Some accused him of being a bully, a tribalist, with no regard for authority in the military, as violent and having no principles. Being an army personnel, he betrayed his profession not once but twice. Firstly, by joining Stevens and other APC cohorts to plan an invasion of Sierra Leone, the very country he was employed and nurtured to protect and defend. The army was unhappy about this but the worst was to come when Bangura connived with some NCOs to overthrow the NRC government and impose Stevens on the people. Some argued that Stevens knew his violent potential and his position in the heart and mind of the army. Some of Bangura's associates were in the pay pocket of Stevens, hence they were spies. Bangura did plan a coup and Stevens knew every stage of the process that he let it go on to have grounds to liquidate Bangura. The army was happy to see the end of Bangura and when the hour came, they looked the other way while Bangura and his political friend slugged it out.
Bangura was political army personnel, while Sir Albert, as a lawyer was a constitutionalist and resorted to due process. Stevens was a thug (rally man) and street graduate and enjoyed sending closed associates to the gallows and displayed their bodies in public as trophy of political prowess. Stevens was quotedasf saying that he was no Sir Albert who was afraid of Bangura thus sending him abroad as a diplomat but he (Stevens) would teach Bangura a lesson in politics by sending him down the gallows. When this hour came, Bangura had no ally and he was left in the hands of his former friend turned enemy.
Bangura was appointed acting Governor-General of Sierra Leone by the ACRM. Bangura, who was not politically ambitious, served briefly from April 18, 1968 to April 22, 1968. He gave the post of Prime Minister to Siaka Stevens, leader of the All People's Congress, the post of Prime Minister. Bangura did not do this for any personal reasons but because his predecessor Governor General Sir Henry Lightfoot Boston had declared the APC the winners of the election.
Read more about this topic: John Amadu Bangura