By Aminata Phidelia Allie
Justice, they say, is a double-edged sword. It is against someone though however you turn it. Therefore, say campaigners for justice and equality, it behoves all in authority to ensure that everyone is treated equally before the law, irrespective of their position in society.
In Sierra Leone, it is hard to come across anyone who would speak favourably about the justice system. And stories abound to see why this is so. One recent example concerns the fight for justice by a traffic warden, Musa Kamara. Two months after his arrest and detention for allegedly insulting the country's Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) in Freetown, there has, so far, been no word from Alpha Kholifa Koroma, the complainant.
The traffic warden, who was arrested on duty, spent two days in a police cell and three more days in the maximum security prison at Pademba Road in Freetown. On all three consecutive occasions that Musa stood before a magistrate, Kholifa never showed up, not even once. This caused the magistrate to throw out the matter for lack of prosecution or lack of evidence.
Musa, who spoke to Politico, swore by his education and future that he never uttered a word against the personality of the Immigration chief, as alleged. He is a second year Economics student at Fourah Bay College, so you can imagine a situation that would warrant him to put his education on the line in this way. But he may have also been lying regardless, yet it's impossible to weigh the balance since the CIO has refused to talk to anybody, let alone the media. He was however quoted by one social media post from a renowned journalist as saying that the warden did rain invectives at him and that he even used the F-word.
From information I have gathered some prominent police officers also allege that the warden did insult the CIO. They claim bystanders heard him do so. They even say the CIO would never apologise to the warden because he, (Musa) was at fault. The question is: if Kholifa seems so right in the matter why has he then refused to tell the waiting public his side of the story? Why did he refuse to show up in court? Why were those bystanders not called to testify against Musa in court? Was the CIO really driving an uninsured vehicle then?
Instead of seeking to provide these answers, the Immigration chief has decided to keep mute, amidst many other burning issues. The Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) was among the first organisations, if not the first, to condemn the actions of the Sierra Leone Police and the immigration boss over the issue.
CARL’s Executive Director, Ibrahim Tommy, sounded as confused as anyone else I have met and talked to on the matter.
Tommy was not in town when it all happened and like the rest of the Sierra Leonean public, he only knows Musa's side of the incident. But he could not imagine what really gave the Chief Immigration Officer the confidence to make the call he made to higher authorities to have the warden arrested within minutes. "Whether the matter has been made known to the Human Rights Commission for investigation or not, l don't know because they have not made any comment on it," he said during a chat at his Brook Street office. The warden suffered based on the fact that he was charged to court, jailed and the complainant was never in court to respond to the matter when the court needed him, he added.
Tommy however said the country's Human Rights Commission should investigate the matter. He also said CARL would like to work with Musa so that he would file a case of malicious prosecution against Kholifa Koroma if he (Musa) wanted to. "As an institution we are working to ensure that the officer gets justice so as to ensure a non-repetition of a similar situation," he said.
Sierra Leone is preparing for the Universal Periodic Review of the State of Human Rights in the country next year in Geneva, Switzerland. CARL is concerned that if there were consistent illegal arrests and detentions of citizens, "all those issues would be in our report and that would have negative effect on the country's human rights record."
When I contacted the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone their Public Relations Officer, Ishmael Baryoh, said that they would not step into the matter because the aggrieved officer was yet to make a formal complaint to the commission.
But the commission’s chairman, Brima Sheriff later told Politico that the Commission indeed had a mandate to investigate all human rights issues so long they were not in court. He also confirmed that the commission had followed the case until it came to court.
Sheriff added that he was going to follow up on the matter and see where the commission could come in, if need be. But from the response of the PRO, it is clear that it's not just the public that really needs education where the commission's mandates and activities are concerned.
Neither the country's Attorney General and Minister of Justice nor the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) could say much about the Musa Kamara and Kholifa Koroma matter either. According to the DPP, Sulaiman Bah, the ministry had given the authority to the Sierra Leone Police for them to be handling certain matters, up to court level, if need be. Those matters, he said, included traffic offences. Bah said that only matters involving serious felonies like murder were expected to reach the AG's office, in which case the AG can authorise the DPP to prosecute.
Musa, the warden, had earlier claimed that it was the police head of legal and justice support, Mohamed B. Kamara, commonly known as 'Legal One', who ordered his arrest which, he said, was effected by a police Local Unit Commander.
By many standards, the matter appears like one of those cases in which the 'big man' shows a 'small man' that they run this country. Musa alleged that Kholifa even threatened that he would make sure the young warden never wore his uniform again. Was the CIO trying to show the poor traffic warden that 'once a police boss was always a police boss', or is it that he has the laws in his bosom because of his
position as a government official?
The Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA), the institution for which Musa works, finally took a position on the matter last month – weeks after one of its own had suffered such gross injustice and indignity. Officials at the authority have now urged the immigration chief to either apologise to and compensate the warden or have them to contend with in court.
But it will take a lot more than just that to tell how sincere their position on the matter is, considering the fact that they were forced – partly by the media – into taking that stance. Would the SLRSA really take the CIO to court? If not, is there any other avenue for our fellow Sierra Leonean to get justice?
As long as we keep letting sleeping dogs lie, injustice and humiliation of the downtrodden will never end.
© Politico 19/02/15
