By Sorie Ibrahim Fofanah
The Freetown City Council says it’s completing plans to deploy armed police officers to guard cemeteries in the city. In a press release issued on the 5th of March, 2024 the FCC says they are working with the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to ensure the deployment of armed police personnel at the cemeteries.
The Council says it’s acting to stop a spate of criminal activities in the cemeteries, including the opening of vaults and carting away all materials in graves.
The release warns those involved to “desist” from the act, adding that “the dead must be allowed to rest in peace,” threatening punitive measures against defaulters.
The FCC also urged people residing close to cemeteries to help the council by staying “extra vigilant” during night hours to apprehend any suspect and hand them over to the Sierra Leone Police.
In an interview with Politico, the caretaker at the Murray Town cemetery to the west of the city Alfred Samuels noted that the act of opening graves is carried out at night to take out scrap metals used in making vaults. “They are mostly kush boys who remove materials like iron ore which they sell,” Samuels said, adding that they have been doing vigilante work at night to catch them.
The FCC representative at the Murray Town cemetery disclosed that the opening of graves at their cemetery did happen twice, in which he said iron rods and gravestones were carted away during the two separate incidents. “Last month, I saw a boy trying to open one of the graves and I shouted at him,” a resident at Murray Town cemetery who happens to be an eyewitness told Politico.
A caretaker at the Kissy Village cemetery, Kenneth Emmaual John told Politico that they have recorded cases of so many thefts of grave materials over time. "They don't dig out bodies. They dig out railings and other grave materials like iron rods," Kenneth said.
He noted that they have tried to solicit help from the City Council but they have received no support.
Politico tried to reach out to the FCC for further comments without success.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (13/03/24)
