By Septimus Senessie
Police say they had to fire live bullets last night to disperse crowds of protesting commercial bike riders in the Kono district headquarter town of Koidu. According to the police support, Assistant Superintendent Abionor Samuel Kamara, the Okada riders, as they are otherwise known, were protesting over the alleged beating into coma at Gbongbor Street of one of their own who had hit a dog owned by a Lebanese trader. He said the rider was responding to treatment at a hospital and that he and his men were still on patrol in the town centre. ASP Kamara said that his men opened fire to disperse the crowd because they had threatened to ransack and burn down houses. The chairman of the Okada riders association, Kono, told Politico that the Lebanese man, named unknown, ordered his boys to beat up the Okada rider after he was said to have rammed into his dog, much to the anger of the Okada fraternity in the town. Ibrahim Sahr Moiwa denied that the rider hit the dog, saying the Lebanese man wanted his colleague “to be killed because of his dog”. He assured that his men were well behaved and that nothing untoward would happen again. Police were still patrolling as we went to press. © Politico 03/10/13
