JIMMY POWER SONGA ENJOYS PUTTING CROWDS ON THE STREETS
We know Power Songa is in the race to become national chairman of the Green Movement and that explains why he brings his supporters out on the streets with every opportunity as a way of demonstrating his political strength, his political relevance on that national stage. Our sources with the Green Movement are telling us his chance of clinching that office practically non-existent. We are however not in any haste to write him off. The election is months away and a week, they say, is a long time in politics. What we want him to know is that we are fed up with him mobilizing crowds all the time even for routine matters like an almost certain parliamentary approval for a deputy position in a state agency.
This guy put people on the streets of Bo at a party function not too long ago, there were skirmishes with supporters of another candidate, police got involved and from what we know he was interviewed by the police but no further action. In the last few weeks, his supporters were out again in Kenema despite warning. Now even with all COVID-19 restrictions, Power Songa’s people put on a show in parliament that was totally unnecessary. Somebody MUST tell this guy that we are all subject to the same law. He cannot continue putting so much strain on police resources by mobilizing such crowds all the time.
Power Songa is a politician with the tendency to overplay his hand. Even before filing the necessary papers in parliament for the confirmation hearings to begin, Power Songa was at NaCSA office being introduced to that staff. Those pictures appeared on social media and we are not sure our MPs warned him against such a behavior.
We warn that the police will find themselves unable to act without being accused of bias when hundreds of football fans turn up at one of the community fields in Freetown because they have allowed Power Songa to get away with this.
WHY SHOULD OKADA RIDERS HAVE THEIR OWN MARSHALLS?
We have to now clearly define the role of those SELF-APPOINTED Okada police officers who now operate alongside our Force for Good and the Road Safety Cops at major road junctions in Freetown. In fact we see them in other parts of the country behaving like police officers. They arrest Okada Riders under the noses of our Force for Good and process them in small corners using their own kangaroo legal system. Can Sovula please tell us how these people came to be on our streets performing the duties of the Sierra Leone Police and the Road Safety Corps?
There is nothing wrong with any group of people forming an association and appointing people from among themselves to manage their affairs. But when they begin to creep on the constitutional duties of our Force for Good, we have a very big problem with that and the fact that the so-called Force for Good appears to have accepted the situation leaves us in a state of utter confusion.
The other day we saw one of them with a crown on his beret. The same crown found on our police officers. What is all this?
Just for the sake of this piece, how will Sovula cope with all associations deciding to form their own police or vigilante units to police their members? Pharmacists will have their own group, lawyers, journalists, doctors, nurses, even teachers and so on. There will be total chaos in this country.
Sovula must act now. If the Okada Police people want to secure the interest of their members they have many ways to go about it. We don’t want to see them on the streets doing police duties. We are prepared to be ignored again on this but the danger is we will wake up one morning to find the OKADA police having their own holding facilities to detain their members for not paying dues. This may sound extreme. It is also extreme that we should a parallel police force in the guise of OKADA Marshalls.
FREETOWN’S OPEN GUTTERS ARE DANGEROUS
Our street gutters are often left open with pedestrians having to be alert to avoid breaking a limb. First time visitors to Sierra Leone often wonder why we leave them uncovered. A good number of the slabs are missing from the gutters in especially streets in central Freetown.
They have been this way for years now with no attempts to fix them. Accidents have occurred and many victims have had to live with the pain sustained from the injuries. Sanders Street, especially the area between Dundas Street junction and St. John is quite an awful place to walk even though it is one of the busiest streets in central Freetown. The gutter is full of festering rubbish and nobody cares. Meanwhile our Mayor of the Sun is on social media telling the world Freetown is the clean.
In this area and many others, people have to keep watching around, fearful of passing cars because the sidewalk is no longer there but just gaping holes. Even by the Cotton Tree on the road leading to State House of all places there is an open gutter; its slabs have been removed and placed nearby to suggest work was done there, but they have not been placed back in their normal positions. These open gutters easily breed mosquitoes as well as give a picture of lack of responsibility from our institutions.
Please Freetown City Council, we know there is total mess – chaos even, on King Jimmy bridge but let’s not allow such mess to appear near the Cotton Tree.
AND LET FCC KNOW OF THE SMALL MATTER OF PUBLIC TOILETS
A frequent Western visitor to Sierra Leone has always stated that the country has all it takes to become a tourist paradise but highlighted a number of areas we need to address properly to make it happen. And one particular fault line he mentioned was the lack of public toilets in the city. We cannot agree more with his viewpoint. Let’s forget about tourists in the first place; public toilets are a must in cities and towns in even developed countries these days. One can count the public toilets within the business district area of this our capital and they are not hygienic at all.
Also in visiting any of them you are in the first place put off by the often thuggish and intimidating looking men in care of those places. Which woman would dare go to such toilets with all the ever growing reported incidences of gender based sexual violence. The conditions at those public toilets are a smack on the face of basic hygiene. Imagine the much vaunted desire for a tourist influx and the embarrassing state of no good public toilet in downtown Freetown. Even citizens coming to town often face very uncomfortable experiences to attend to nature’s call. Some are even turned away when in desperation they go to private residences to ease themselves.
Clean and safe public toilets must be seen all over Freetown. We hope public toilets are an integral component of the much publicized Council plan to transform Freetown.
Council is collecting taxes from the people and must be seen to be equally concerned about the needs of the taxpayers. Yes we have pristine beaches, breathtaking mountains and promising wildlife that many people would want to see. But as we pride ourselves in all of these, we have to keep those simple things as public toilets well and truly erected all around Freetown which is the first port of call for all tourists coming to Sierra Leone. We need public toilets please FCC!
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