POLITICAL PARTY MARSHALLS BANNED
Good riddance. In fact it’s only the so-called SECURITY SECTOR knows why it took so long to smash what was clearly the biggest threat to democratic contest within our political parties in this country. The whole business of having cruel militia men disguised as MARSHALS around political party events had clearly gone out of hands and it’s mainly the two big parties that are responsible – they have the money and the organization to maintain and keep the militia men safe from the law.
Party leadership hopefuls came back to Freetown from the aborted Tolongbo convention in Portloko complaining that they were harassed and attacked by so-called MARSHALS. One of them displayed pictures of his vehicle, seriously damaged by the militia and even after reports were made to the police they simply refused to move. On the other side there have been clashes between rival leadership contenders at Green Movement conventions on the streets, police have made arrests but zero prosecutions.
On paper these militias have been banned but what stops them from operating in civilian clothing and committing the same atrocities? We want to police to tell us how they will ensure that the militia men do not continue operating against the opponents of their paymasters.
Instead of bringing their young, intelligent and prospective leaders from the universities to help organize these conventions and so introduce them to clean party politics, the leaders of our parties are employing dangerous criminals as so-called MARSHALS to get them to enforce anti-democratic behavior. What a shame.
We call on our SECURIRY SECTOR to also NOW deal with those militia operating all along the peninsula of Freetown, terrorizing people over land. They are even more dangerous than the political party Marshals because they kill people. Destroy all militias NOW.
NOTEWORTHY GREEN PUSH INTO OPPOSITION STRONGHOLD
We agree that this was a by-election in one ward that brought out only FORTY-THREE percent or so of registered voters. We will not take issues with those who say this by-election tell no story about coming events. We will however reply by saying the fact that the Green Movement went into what was always the stronghold of Tolongbo, until they were chased out by NGC and win any kind of election should ring alarm bells at the former Marine House. In other words Tolongbo guys should take a quick look at their electoral maps again and consider the implications of this Green victory in Kambia of all places. Again they can choose to ignore this reality on the ground for now, what they cannot ignore immediately is the perception this creates among even the most diehard of Tolongbo supporters. We could hear them conclude that their so-called strongholds are not impregnable any more. They will start demanding quick answers soon. Long explanations will not change anything at that point.
While talking about Tolongbo, we shouldn’t forget the real losers on the day – the NGC. They were beaten to third place. They clearly represent a real danger to Tolongbo in Kambia district as they were in 2018. The truth is without them, most of those who voted against Tolongbo would probably have remained with them.
Again, we don’t want to go too far into this but winning an election is about numbers, and for the Green movement in that part of the country, every vote counts. Election is also about momentum. Surely, the momentum is swinging away from NGC in its own areas. We’ll see how things play out as time goes on.
PLAYING OUR HOME MATCHES AWAY IN GUINEA, AGAIN.
Not for the first time our national football team will play a home match in neighboring Guinea. As we write, a sport delegation has just returned from Guinea to organize the venue and arrange the terms on which the Guineans will permit us to play there. We hear things went pretty well. In advance, we join the good people of Sierra Leone to thank our brothers and sister in Guinea for hosting us yet again.
The Confederation of African Football, CAF has banned Siaka Steven Stadium from hosting international matches because the facilities there are poor – the pitch is bad, the changing rooms are not fit for purpose, the scoreboard is nothing to write home about. So we largely agree with CAF on the poor state of things over here.
Now we have to play in Guinea a few days after an encounter with the boys of the mountain kingdom of Lesotho in Maseru. It’s a long flight back but this is what we get when we allow vital infrastructure to decay while we drink Bailey’s Irish Cream. We are looking forward to the SLFA and the National Sports Authority giving us details of some issues around the game. For example:
1. With the twin evils, COVID -19 and Ebola in Guinea, how many fans will be allowed into the stadium and what will be the cost of match tickets?
2. There is a large Sierra Leonean migrant community in Guinea, what role will they play in support of our team against a powerful team from Benin?
3. By the way, we want to know how much money we are paying as a nation to play out in Guinea and whether the cash is coming from our taxes or FIFA will pay.
4. Anyway, at least two people had no business in that delegation to Guinea. This per diem thing is surely getting the better of our professional judgment
5. We put our players in the hands of God as they travel to southern Africa and back but will the technical people be allowed to select the best players we have around the world? We have no choice now, WE MUST WIN BOTH MATCHES TO QUALIFY FOR AFCON.
IG SOVULA WHAT’S HAPPENING TO THE WATERLOO SCRAPYARD?
The police have gone completely quiet but we are waiting to see what the police will do about that obviously criminal scrapyard in Waterloo where stolen vehicles are easily shredded to pieces and sold on the streets of Freetown in bits. In recent times there have numerous reports of cars stolen across Freetown in particular in circumstances too difficult to believe. For example, a man parked his Toyota RAV 4 vehicle along Campbell Street, approaching St. John; he went into one of the shops to buy something. He returned about TEN MINUTES later to find the empty space where he parked his car. He raised an alarm and those around told him said they actually saw a man drive away in that car.
There was also the case of a senior citizen whose car was stolen from her compound in the west of Freetown and after hours of social media outcry the vehicle was stopped deep inside neighboring Guinea. And there was that Catholic Priest who suffered that same fate at FBC. His vehicle has NEVER been found. We have only mentioned a few among many recent cases.
The arrest of that guy at Waterloo represents a big opportunity for the police to smash this criminal ring once and for all.
However, we should make the following points:
1. We understand the man has been in that business for many years, why did it take so long for the police to lay fingers on him? How many of such people do we have operating in other dark corners in this country?
2. How far will this investigation go? We warn the police not to simply scratch the surface and pull back claiming victory. We are absolutely convinced that the man now in their custody is part of a major criminal ring distressing people in this country. They should be put away for a very long time in BONTHE ISLAND PRISON.
3. We have always commented on the existence of scrapyards and their link to cars being stolen on the streets. We have argued before in this column that not every stolen car is taken across the border and that scrapyards should be registered and regulated to stop them being used like the one at Waterloo. Now, we’ve arrived.
4. We are calling attention to the place we know as WATERLOO again. Among the ordinary, hardworking and decent Sierra Leoneans living there are many criminals who have retreated to that dark little corner near Freetown. They have killed soldiers, police officers and ordinary people there but it seems the police would only touch the surface and pull back. We have to do something about Waterloo otherwise there will no peace in Freetown.
Copyright (c) 2021 Politico Online
