ARMED ROBBERS ARE BUSY DISTRESSING PEOPLE IN DARING RAIDS 079 97 93 79
If IG Sovula goes back through at least FIVE of our recent editions he will see clearly that we have been calling his attention to criminal activities taking place across the country with amazing rapidity. We have also noted the increasingly brazen nature of such attacks and the fact that this is happening in a country that is under curfew from ELEVEN in the evening to SIX in the morning. During this time only the police and sometimes military officers are supposed to be on the roads. So why are we experiencing so much armed robbery in Freetown in particular?
In an extremely audacious attack in the last two weeks, a criminal walked into the compound of a senior citizen and stole her car between SEVEN AND EIGHT in the morning. Following a big social media outcry, the car was stopped deep inside neighboring Guinea with an obviously fake diplomatic license plate. We like IG Sovula and we think he is not doing badly so far but he has to answer the following questions that the good people of Sierra Leone are asking right now.
1. How was it possible for the stolen jeep mentioned above to be driven across this country with all those police checkpoints, and across our supposedly closed border with Guinea without the police arresting the thief?
2. OK IG Sovula can say the vehicle had a diplomatic license plate but we know that when diplomats accredited to this country travel across borders, they inform the foreign ministry. Was that vehicle booked with the police ahead of its arrival in Kambia? Is IG Sovula telling us that his men did not ask for certain papers just because there was that stolen diplomatic license place?
3. While we wait for the answers, can we humbly ask if an inquiry has been launched into how that vehicle crossed that border without our Force for Good picking it up even after all the social media outcry?
4. How many other vehicles have been stolen recently within this country that the police have been totally unable to locate and arrest the thieves? Surely reports are made to the police so they should have these figures.
5. What has IG Sovula done about those vehicle scrapyards where some of these stolen vehicles end up? We know there is one at Kingtom, one at Hill-cot road and another at Race Course. What has the IG done about them?
ACC WITHOUT A FULL ADVISORY BOARD FOR TWO YEARS NOW
We have repeatedly reported the conspicuous absence of an advisory board for the Anti-Corruption Commission ACC. The board so far has ONLY TWO MEMBERS more than TWO YEARS into the NEW DIRECTION administration. This is clearly unbelievable and we will not accept any explanation because almost all other boards have been constituted. Is there anything we should know about the New Direction’s refusal to fully constitute the ACC advisory board?
We know that only two people have been appointed and approved by parliament. They cannot do any paperwork because the other board members have still not been appointed. The irony of the whole situation is that the ACC board members receive absolute pittance in terms if sitting fees. Other boards receive FIVE TIMES more than those at the ACC, so why has this issue been neglected in this way? This is nothing about the budget.
Has Afro boy done enough to press State House to complete his advisory board? The ACC continues to meet our expectations, largely, but the absence of THE ADVISORY BOARD is a scar on whatever they are doing there. That board represents the rest of society. WE WANT OUR ACC ADVISORY BOARD. Now!
SALONE POLICE JET OFF TO PEACEKEEPING OPERATION
We congratulate some of our police officers selected for peacekeeping duties in the troubled country of Somalia. We have no doubt that they will do well as always and make Sierra Leone proud. We saw pictures on social media of those officers boarding a UN aircraft. They looked very neat and happy. They looked proud of their achievement and they looked ready to do the job indeed.
We understand the next batch is due to leave soon. We don’t know how soon but we should wish them well in advance of their departure.
Our service personnel really like going on peacekeeping operations even to very dangerous corners of the world like war-torn Somalia and the reasons are not difficult to find.
1. The officers fly in a modern UN aircraft, some of them for the first time to foreign country they had no chance of visiting in their life time on their own.
2. The idea of going abroad to represent one’s country is one that makes anybody proud. When those officers put on their new uniforms with the flag of their country and the AMISOM beret, they look very good.
3. Perhaps the most important thing that comes to their mind on being selected is the amount of money they will make for their services. A good many of those who returned before the coronavirus pandemic invested their monies very well. Lives have changed permanently after just one tour of duty. Good Luck guys. Stay safe.
NOT JUST LIGHT, BATHURST IS GETTING MORE
Indeed the small mountain rural settlement of Bathurst is suddenly on the limelight. Unbelievably it is for electricity that the people there will now have for the first time in their lives. Our use of the adverb (unbelievably) is because we are yet to come to terms with the neglect successive governments have subjected this village to. Historically the place was first settlement for freed slaves that the British sent to its Colony. The Brits left in 1961 but we just cannot understand why they never ever thought about giving the people of Bathurst a bit of energy supply. At the time of their departure, there was not a structure to suggest they ever contemplated lighting up the place.
Our local leaders in post-independence Sierra Leone, as we have now come to learn, also neglected the village. The light might have brought the place to greater public attention but we have also found out another development that has already taken place there that never got the attention it deserved. The only school in the village was for only children in classes 1-3.
Gaining promotion to class 4 the children had to every day trek to Regent village to go to school. They did that until they finished their primary education. The encouraging development now is that the Ministry of Basic and Secondary School Education has ensured the other 3 classes are now at the school. And the children for the first time sat to NPSE for entry into Junior Secondary School, last month, right there in the school!
It was a classic case of Bathurst so near yet so far! Kudos to Principal’s administration has injected some life into that place.
ENGLAND FOOTBALLERS BEHAVING BADLY ABROAD
Look at what we have here with two footballers in the national team of England. Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood who get their daily bread playing for Manchester City and Manchester United respectively have messed up spectacularly. The young guys have been thrown out of camp for bringing women into the team hotel that was subjected to COVID -19 regulations. A key aspect of those restrictions is social distancing – in other words keep away from people. They have both been reportedly fined more than ONE THOUSAND pounds sterling by Iceland police.
What were they thinking? This is certainly very bad news for these young guys who have just been given the opportunity to stake their claim for a place in the team. Many have put this awkward behavior down to naivety and all that. That may be true but the moment people get into the national football team of their country or any national position for that matter, they are expected to behave themselves and serve their country well. So we ask again: what were they thinking?
1. Maybe we should support those who say the behavior is explained by naivety and use that same logic to ask Mr. Southgate to keep the two guys out of the team for a long time. Well, until they grow up. The England national team is not for naïve players.
2. Mr. Southgate please ask them to refund every cent they recently to Her Majesty’s Treasury. They don’t deserve a penny. See how England struggled to scrape through against ICELAND. Those naïve players were there thinking about women.
3. Is Mr. Southgate these two naïve guys are the only guilty ones? We ask because we absolutely suspect that some experienced guys in that team also took part in breaking COVID – 19 regulations in that camp. Mr. Southgate have to throw out his main players should he decide to act against all those who broke the regulations
4. When all is said and done, breaking COVID -19 rules by bringing women into a hotel under quarantine is better than beating police officers in another man’s country and offering bribes to be set free. The player now convicted for this is certainly not a naïve man.
5. Let’s be honest, Mr. Southgate should simply allow the guys to run things. We are now being told to learn how to live with COVID -19. So what’s all this fuss about?
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