By Mohamed Turah Massaquoi
In recent years, there has been an increasing alarm of Armed Robbery in the southern regional headquarter town of Bo and its surrounding districts. Despite the fact that much has been invested in the security sector by the government and its international partners in ensuring the prevalence of peace following the end of the civil war, the result shows very little to be desired.
There are indications that members of the Sierra Leone police, for instance, who are charged with protecting lives and properties, are accomplices to some of these crimes. In March this year, a group of six men, armed with guns and machetes, were caught in Pujehun district robbing peaceful inhabitants, and among the robbers there were two OSD officers.
The officers were both dismissed before court rulings, according to Inspector Alex Mustapha, Regional Staff Officer in the office of the Assistance Inspector General of Police who is also the former Police media boss in the region. Last year, similar havoc was wreck on the Bandajuma Sowa community along the Bo-Pujehun highway, which is also the headquarters of the Senegalese construction company - CSE. However, another contributing factor on the side of the police is their inability to provide statics of crimes committed in the district and the region at large. With every efforts made by politico both on visit and on phone to the police regional communication unit, statics of Arm Robbery and other crimes from 2016 to 2017 were not provided. The resulting lack of trust has caused residents in the regional headquarter town of Bo to forming themselves into vigilante groups in the name of self-defense, which has in turn occasioned a seeming rivalry to the police. From my two-week investigations, it became obvious that the current security situation in the southern regional headquarter town is not only unstable, but also increasingly becoming a threat to the lives of the larger community.
While the police constantly claim to be on-top of the situation, the threat has grown from looting to rape, to stabbing, with far reaching consequences that impact on education. Residents fear that if an urgent attention is not given to addressing the situation by strengthening the security sector, it will undermine fundamental human rights like movement, peace and the right to life. Simeon Collier, youth chairman of Kandeh Town and the leader of three vigilante groups within Bo town, said they have been dealing with the break down in security for a long time now and he said rape cases were rapidly increasing. "We have some bad boys who have been coming around harassing people at night for their properties including money, and raping women at the same time," he said. Collier accused the police of conniving with the armed robbers in harassing ordinary citizens. He cited an incident where one of the robbers was captured by members of his vigilante group after breaking into the premises of a nurse and raping her. "Surprisingly to us, two OSD officers appeared at the scene and urged us to handover the suspect to them. And up to date we have not heard from them on any development" said Collier.
An unnamed man whose wife is a rape victim in the hands of armed robbers would not comment in detail since the case was already in court. He only said that "the robbers really came with the intention to kill us." There is hardly any section in the entire Bo city that has not had an experience of armed robbery. These vigilante groups have become so desperate and determined to defend their people that they themselves have become a subject of concern. Critics say they are violating the rights of other peaceful residents in their response. They beat and stab people, and they destroy vehicles, some of the residents say. They say this is because the boys serving in the volunteer forces do not have the right training.
Members of the Kandeh Town vigilante groups, for instance, were once arrested by the police and locked-up for beating a man and destroying his vehicle at night. The man was said to have been moving around the community late in the night when he got caught by a vigilante group. Collier believes his men were targeted by the police for extortion. "This is because the police were not happy about our operations, as such they used that against us by extorting huge amount of money from us as a way of discouraging the youths from providing security for our people," he lamented. Collier remains grateful with the local chiefs of his area for coming to their aid by paying the fine that was levied on them.
In Nduvuibu, a section in Bo West Division, a business man was attacked by armed robbers who stabbed him on the back. That incident in September last year saw the attackers carting away mobile phones (on charge) belonging to customers of the businessman and cash amounting to over Le 1m including, among other valuables. The victim, Marthin Karimu, recalled that at around 2 am that day he heard a "heavy blast" from his small shop where his two kids were sleeping. "I heard my two kids shouting, ‘father’, they are killing us. Open, come to our aid,” he explained. Karimu said the some of the attackers threatened to kill anyone who ventured out of their rooms. It was when he decided to save his kids that karimu got the stab. One of the alleged attackers in that incident was later identified by a community member and the matter was reported to the police who investigated and charged it to court.
These criminals according to Alex Mustapha the regional Staff Officer in the office of the Assistance Inspector General of Police south are based in the city of Bo working with other hardcore criminals from other parts of the country.
Karimu said he was afraid of his safety and therefore couldn’t attend the court hearings. The young business man lamented that attacks on members of his community became so frequent that at least an incident was reported every two days in a month. He said the attack on his home left him with “pressure” and his wife with heart pain. "For my wife, it is a serious case, because I have not been able to take her to any medical facility as my only hope to getting money has been destroyed completely," he lamented. His son, a Class Six pupil, dropped out of school because he couldn’t afford to pay his fees. He said even to get food was a problem.
Nduvuibu is one of the biggest communities in Bo city. Karimu said there are so many criminals based in their community but that the police were making little or no move to discourage them. Inspector Mustapha though say people shouldn’t lose confidence in the police as they were determined to take appropriate action against any police officer found wanting of the laws. He cited a recent dismissal of two OSD officers on grounds of misconduct. He also argued that armed robbery wasn’t isolated to Bo. "Every Sierra Leonean can attest to the fact that armed robbery is not only limited to the south, but all over the country. And we are on-top of the situation," he said.
The police spokesman also blamed the situation on the influx of shut guns in the region. “These guns are locally made by blacksmiths and most of our case investigations are connected to the use of these guns, machetes, and other sharp objects.” Mustapha cited a recent incident in which a man was shot to death in neighboring Pujehun District. He said as part of police investigations, both the shooter and the victim were on hunting expedition. Mustapha also cited an imbalance in the strength of the police as against the huge population they cover in the region. He says the cooperation of the community was therefore crucial if they are to provide security for them. The major economic activities of residents in Bo district are farming, gold mining, commercial motor bike riding, and trading. The city of Bo is renown for political violence.
On its southern flank, Sierra Leone shares an extensive boundary with neighboring Liberia. And Inspector Mustapha says there are 40 illegal crossing points between the two countries. "We do not have the manpower to man all of these illegal crossing points," he said, adding that this was part of the contributing factors to crimes in the region. Those involved in armed robbery, according to details available from police, are youths, with ages ranging from 18 to 35 years. The crime rate has been identified to occur seasonally, usually peaking during the rains. Mustapha said they had piles of cases of such nature that has been recently committed to the high court. He said pressure on the courts led the authorities to increase by two the Appeals court judges, bringing to three their number in Bo.
According to the police and some analysts, amidst the efforts in ensuring the prevalence of peace in the region, some other people within the same community were conniving with the criminals to cause unrest. In the case of the Vigilante groups, Inspector Mustapha lamented “over zealousness” in their operations, which he said tend to worsen the situation. He said they had always deployed one OSD Officer to each of the vigilante groups during their night patrols. He said the Trans-National Organized Crime Unit within the police would not by any means compromise in crimes committed by any police officer at the detriment of public safety. "The period of recruitment process is not enough to show-up the attitude of all the applicants. Therefore we rely on the oath taken by them. And the general public should be aware of the fact that there must be some bad police, but that is not for them to generalize," Mustapha said.
© 2018 Politico Online
