COCAINE SHIP INTERCEPTED OFF THE COAST OF SALONE
There’s a lot of talk about cocaine along the coast of West Africa – a suspicious shipping container arrives in Freetown, arrests in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, extraditions from Sierra Leone to Liberia and now a report that the French Navy intercepted a Brazilian ship with cocaine on board. What’s going on along the coast people? Have the cartels of South America suddenly found a short and open route to the lucrative market of Europe for their cocaine?
The last thing we want down this coast is for cartels to establish a foothold in one of our weak states. They have tried it in Guinea Bissau by destabilizing that country many times but it would appear as if they have failed - at least for now. They never stop trying. We are now confronted with a very serious situation and ECOWAS, not just any single country should brace up for a bitter struggle.
1. There’s no doubt that cocaine shipments are not meant to be discharged and sold in any of our countries. Yes, a few packets here and there may be dropped along but the bulk of the stuff is meant for Europe and America. West Africa is being used as a transit point. ECOWAS must do everything to deny the cartels their wish.
2. Things are already bad in West Africa with ISIS-affiliates causing havoc in about half a dozen countries. It will be more than a disaster for drug cartels to link up with them.
3. There are citizens of ECOWAS who are actively working with these cartels – they provide intelligence and help corrupt our security agencies to make it easy for the deadly cargoes to sail through. We must find them and put them behind bars for a long time.
4. Our Financial Intelligence Unit should go after their dirty money and stop them from using it to evade justice and commit more atrocities. This is a war we must WIN.
EXPLOITING THE DISABLED BETWEEN TANZANIA AND KENYA
We just wonder what else humans have not done to exploit other humans, especially the disabled. The BBC Africa Eye just revealed a cruel trafficking of disabled people from Tanzania to major towns of Kenya for the sole purpose of exploiting them.
The masters of the trade and their agents take both children and adults from poor families and communities in Tanzania with the promise of helping them learn a trade to support their families back. We can only imagine how many people will fall for that given the economic realities of our times. However, when they finally land in the Promised Land of Kenya, they are subjected to inhuman treatment of the worst kind. Some may never see their families again.
They are unleashed on the streets to beg from dawn to dusk; come rain come shine and in the end, all the proceeds from their begging is collected from them. On days when the streets are dry, they will be mercilessly beaten for not bringing home enough cash. Why are people so wicked?
We don’t really know whether people are brought over from Guinea and Liberia to beg on our streets but we know that children are being brought into Freetown in particular from areas outside the capital for this same purpose. We recently raised concern in this column about the influx of beggars on our streets. We should be careful not to have such begging cartels here in Sierra Leone organizing things on an industrial scale.
We have many children begging on the streets with their parents when they should be in school getting an education. The FCC started a program to move beggars from the center of our city but it collapsed like a pack of cards within a few months. Since then the numbers have multiplied. We cannot allow this to continue.
THE FINAL PRESIDENTIAL MEDIA COCKTAIL BEFORE JUNE 2023
A lot of things were said and done at the Presidential Media cocktail on
Wednesday that we will be talking about for some time to come. And
they are really important issues but in this column we just want to put a
few things down because it’s impossible to deal with all. So here goes:
1. Principal abandoned his normal style to poke fun at particular newspapers. He delivered a powerful speech in which he outlined the details of what he called his media SCORECARD. No matter which way we look at it he is very strong in this area going into the 2023 elections.
We are not the only ones saying this. All the powerful media watchers around the world have also done so.
2. The SLAJ president should be laughing all the way to the bank because the organization’s annual subvention has gone up significantly again.
3. Journalists from all over the country turned out in good numbers. For many it was the start of Christmas festivities because they paid very little attention to what was being said by all the speakers. Even some of the brilliant comedians at the show noted that. People should expect a bit more from journalists.
4. Principal wasn’t quite able to press every flesh as he would have wanted because throughout the rounds a dozen or so journalists kept fighting to get selfies with the guy. This could have been better organized. We wish you a Merry Christmas.
BO RANGERS HELDWITH MUSA TOMBO IN THE STANDS
Tombo was sitting in the stands watching Bo Rangers struggling against newly promoted Real Republicans. Throughout last season, the Bo stadium was a fortress, visiting teams entered hoping to be slaughtered but from what happened on Friday, we can safely suggest that the idea of Bo stadium being a fortress is beginning to look shaky. Maybe we shouldn’t read too much into just one match and rush to a conclusion. Let’s keep our eyes open as the league progresses.
For now our attention is firmly on Musa Tombo who was released by Bo Ranger but would now want to link up again. It’s not looking good for the maverick who, as we now know signed a two-year contract for Libyan side Al-itihad but after being unveiled to the fans in their stadium used crude tactics to compel the club to allow him to return to Freetown on so-called compassionate leave. He hasn’t returned since.
So all he can do now is play in football leagues not recognized by the SLFA because he has to serve out his contract in Libya or pay his way out. The second option should not even be on the cards because the guy is broke. The Libyans are waiting for any club to sign Tombo before they call in FIFA and ask for BIG MONEY. No international club will attempt that. In fact Tombo doesn’t want to play abroad.
The more Tombo continues to sit the stands the more likely it is that another scene in the real drama of his life would unfold. He shouldn’t try this nonsense of stabbing himself with a bread knife or going around some corner of Bo city in just his underpants. We have already seen all of that.
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