“SAN SAN” TRUCKS CAUSE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS FOR PEOPLE THEY STEAL FROM
This is a double whammy! We have received numerous complaints form residents of BANGO FARM, just after the Emergency Hospital at Goderich, about a high-level syndicate going on there, stealing from them and causing them sleepless nights. Some nocturnal sand-transporting groundbreaking trucks are rumbling as if they are in the jungle. They start at midnight and stop at 06:00am, and they are precise like regular workers. In fact, not really, and how we wish all public workers especially those receiving unnecessarily whooping salaries were this precise and prompt at work! Anyway…
Our investigations have shown an apparent connivance between the police, the Bango Farm headman and some RARAY BOYS in the area. They each get Le 200,000 per truck, we are reliably informed, hence a boom in the business and an intense nightmare for the poor people who get neither the money to uplift their community’s wretched state, nor a restful sleep. We have been given an idea as to why this is allowed to flourish despite protests by the community people. It is not far from the usual - politics: keep the jobless happy, no matter at what cost, and they will fight for you at the polls. SURVIVAL! As for the police and the headman, hmmm. You know better than us, don't you? Maybe the internal affairs man who goes around personally arresting Okada boys and parking their bikes at his residence instead of letting the police do their job, should visit Bango Farm. We will return to this soon!
SO THE GAVI FUN WAS NO GRAVY TRAIN AFTER ALL! SO DE PA MUST APOLOGISE!
We read with amazement the exonerating press release from State House about who stole or didn't steal the GAVI Funds that were said to have been pilfered. Now the presidential committee (we wonder how many there have been and of what use anyway) says the dismissed men were innocent. To refresh your memory, the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation - funded by Bill Gates - is a project aimed at saving children through vaccines. A few years ago, GAVI noticed that some of their funds had disappeared in Salone and threatened to stop funding these life-saving interventions if the matter was not probed. In a knee-jerk manner and perhaps un-procedurally, De Pa dismissed senior health officials something he probably never had any powers or reason to do himself. They included the then Chief Medical Officer. An indictment of the people would have meant automatic suspension from office pending the outcome of the trials. But that was too much to wait for. The matter was charged to court and many of them were acquitted and discharged. De Pa did not reinstate them nor could the head of the civil service because that could have been deemed insubordination to the HIGH AND MIGHTY and he too could have been shown the door. Hmmm, oh power!!!
So we don't know why the need for the specially appointed presidential committee to investigate the same people, again! Koni una let! Mortal man nor to God!!! We demand that the men be paid all their salaries with an apology from De Pa, and they be reinstated. Justice is justice! Injustice is injustice!
WAR AGAINST ROMANTIC ALBERT ACADEMY BOYS, BUT WILL THEY FIGHT BACK?
If anyone is spending sleepless nights over lawlessness in the country, like De Pa is purported to be spending over water shortage in the city, well they will die of insomnia. Because just as the Okada Boys are redefining lawless behaviour come school boys of Collegiate who instead of being a library were out and about caning over girlfriends. We were astounded last Thursday when we saw scores of Collegiate school boys with canes looking out for Albert Academy boys to flog. Reason: their babes. They said the AA fellas were taking over their girlfriends, so humiliating them through flogging would bring their babes back to them. And that’s not all, boys of Ahmadiyya Secondary School in Kissy have also been on the lookout for the same Academy boys for the same reason. We are not sure why this is but it seems ESE QUAM… means something about romanticism.
That said, school authorities appear to be losing grip over their students like politicians seem to be becoming clueless over running the country. At a time when these school boys should be busying themselves with studies, they are fighting over making babies. Things are definitely no more black and white in Sierra Leone - everything now seems grey. Lorda mercy!
JOKE OF THE MONTH: SALONE POLICE TO SEIZE MINISTERIAL VEHICLES WITH COVERED REGISTRATION PLATES
It seems one of the most brazen traffic offences will soon come to an end through one of the most brazen police actions. You know the story of petty thieves being arrested and necklaced with burning tyres while the big-time thieves (politicians) are being deified when they come around the poor and hapless people they steal from. Well that is the name of the game here: our police tame low-raking people who have no SABABU, and salute those who should be in jail. This is why some ministers have persistently been covering their vehicle number plates with black cloth and cruising around nonchalantly. Years back we saw one of the most decent senior police officers we have had in recent times - then AIG Chris Charlie (now retired) - take to task the then Mayor Herbert George-Williams for covering his vehicle number plate. It must have been on a Sunday and a vehicle that was to have been parked somewhere under lock and key was parked somewhere in front of a bar at Campbell Street. Those days it seems are to return. AIG Al-Shek Kamara told us this week that ministerial vehicles whose number plates are covered will be impounded and the drivers arrested and “if the minister [the vehicle] inside so be it”.
We salute you sir, AIG Al Shek! We know you are a decent police officer, probably the best the police force has right now. But we beg to differ that this is just hot air - E NOR GO APIN, NOBA! Even if it does, there will be no consequence because you are not alone and you are not protected. Here are a few reasons why we think this is not possible:
- The police force is under the direct control of politicians. Otherwise why is the Vice President the head of the police council and the internal affairs minister its secretary!
- The police officers on the streets are very scared of authority. In fact they will salute any vehicle which covers its number plate thinking it is a minister’s. In the event they insist on doing their job there is no protection for them from the bullies and power abusers we call politicians. So UNA BLOW!
(C) Politico 19/05/16
