Yansaneh accused the men of working for his landlord, Fatamata Hassan Komeh (who was a Member of Parliament for the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party), who had been trying to evict the paper from their building because their reports were critical to the government.
Harry Yansaneh was a recent graduate of the journalism school from the University of Sierra Leone, when he became the acting editor of the newspaper For Di People.
[1] For Di People and five other newspapers (The African Champion, The Independent Observer, The Pioneer, The Pool, and The Progress) had rented the building at 1 Short Street in Freetown for over a decade when the landlord died and his wife, Fatamata Hassan Komeh, inherited the building[2] Within a few months, Hassan Komeh (who was a new MP for the SLPP) began efforts to try and evict the newspapers, reportedly for publishing reports critical of the government.
[3] The efforts came to a head on 10 May 2005 when two sons of Hassan Komeh and three other men were claimed to have entered the offices of For Di People and damaged computers and other property and assaulted Yansaneh.
[2] In honor of his efforts, the headquarters for the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists became named the Harry Yansaneh Memorial Hall.