BO RANGERS FINED NLe 60,000 FOR FA CUP FIASCO. REALLY?
We always knew that fines were going to be levied for the crowd trouble that brought the FA Cup final match between Bo Rangers and EE Lions to a premature end just over a week ago but for the SLFA to fine Bo Ranger SIXTY THOUSAND NEW LEONES plus a few more thousands for the behavior of their fans is as crazy as it is unacceptable. How did they arrive at that figure?
On the other side they asked an EE Lions man who violated the playing by pouring juju substance all around a paltry FIVE THOUSAND NEW LEONES. They threatened the guy with a SIX MONTH ban should he fail to pay. That speaks of the seriousness of his crime and at the same time makes absolute nonsense of the fine.
There’s just one thing to read from this: TD Brima has put the organization on a war footing as he tries to get Babadi Kamara to stop thinking about challenging him next year. How else can we explain this?
By the way, did the fans of Bo Rangers also damage Babadi Kamara’s vehicle and wound his hand? Or is the SLFA telling us that they did not take that into consideration because they happened to Bo Rangers. We have to let TD Brima know that this total injustice, whether it is successfully appealed or not, has exposed what he’s been hiding behind public smiles while calling everybody a BROTHER or SISTER as the case may be.
And this stupid thing about calling the SLFA grounds a neutral place is a real shame. In fact, the SLFA has just opened up the possibility for more violence by allowing the so-called conclusion of the match to admit fans.
SIXTY THOUSAND NEW LEONES will go directly into the June 2025 war chest.
By the way, we are now going to carefully document all incidents of violence in both the male and female leagues and show our reader what the SLFA did about those incidents. Journalism, they say, is the first draft of history.
PLASTIC WASTE AND FCC FLOOD MITIGATION PROGRAM
Mayor Kemokai of Freetown is on the move at last. She has put some people on the roads to clear the inadequate drainage system in the city as the rains are fast approaching. The city’s drainage is almost always totally blocked – stuffed with plastic waste and other debris so that when it rains the whole place is flooded out. We witnessed what happened in the east of Freetown when traffic had to be diverted for hours to clear mounds of rubbish dumped on the main highway after just half an hour of rain. We applaud what we have seen along a few streets recently and we urge the Mayor to press on with the job.
Mayor Kemokai should know however that as long as we continue to allow producers of soft drinks in plastic bottles and water sachets to operate without a program to recycle their waste, we should prepare to be doing endless drainage clearing every year. This picture shows clearly that more than 90% of what is cleared from the system is single use plastic bottles and sachets dumped on the road by commuters daily. We cannot continue like this. It is unfair for ratepayers in Freetown to be paying people to clean up after these companies while they laugh all the way to the bank.
Anyway, the FCC needs the total support of the central government and all of us living in Freetown. While we tackle the companies mentioned above, we should also think about tackling our own attitudes and stop dumping waste in the drainage system. We have seen Japanese fans cleaning stadiums after football matches. They didn’t have police officers enforcing that. It’s just part of them. They know the benefits of living in a clean environment. Or attitudes MUST change in Freetown.
Madam Mayor, what’s your budget for this FLOOD MITIGATION program? We are not ACC but we pay our taxes and that’s not too much to ask for. Is it?
THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING BACK AFTER 32 YEARS
Our foreign minister says by the end of 2024, the Russians will be back in Freetown. They closed their diplomatic mission in this country 32 years ago and set themselves up in the neighboring Republic of Guinea. Our minister met his counterpart, Mr. Lavrov in Moscow before going on to London. They also talk about helping Sierra Leone with its “Energy Ambition”. Many have interpreted that to mean Russia building a nuclear plant here like they intend doing in Burkina Faso. Maybe they are right.
As good citizens of Sierra Leone, we just have a few things to say to our minister and he is free to put this edition of our people on the cabinet table when returns to Freetown.
1. We welcome the Russians to Freetown. We like strangers. Russia trained many of our doctors and politicians in the days of Siaka Stevens and even as we write this our brother and sisters are out there getting good education. We hope more of our people will benefit when the Russians open their embassy in Freetown.
2. Please tell the Russians NOT to bring even ONE Wagner soldier to our country. They easily attract terrorists and we closed our civil war chapter in 2000. We cannot afford to be attacked by Jihadist forces from the Sahel. Our soldiers can adequately deal with any security challenge in this country.
3. We have to be very careful not to get drawn into the details of the current global geo-politics. Our position in the non-permanent section of the UN Security Council should be used to bring benefits to us and the rest of the world not to get short-term things and end up annoying good friends that have been with us all this while, including all those 32 years when our returning friends were doing something else.
BORIS JOHNSON TURNED AWAY AT A POLLING STATION
In the last few days, we’ve been trying to process the news that the former British Prime Minister turned at a polling station to vote in the recent local election without his identity card and was quickly denied a ballot and sent home. Our information is that it was during his time at 10 Downing Street that a law was passed requiring voters to have an ID card to be allowed to vote. So what was this guy really thinking when tried to break the law there?
1. Boris was merely confirming yet again what was said about him about his handling of his own COVID 19 regulations – that there was one law for the rest of the country and another for him and his friends. So while people were in complete isolation under lockdown, he was having parties. That’s it.
2. Maybe all he wanted was the media attention that the whole incident generated around him. He enjoys being in the limelight.
3. He thought that the media will also shift attention a bit from the devastating loss his party suffered in the recent local elections. As it turned out, that calculation was wrong.
4. It is possible he genuinely forgot to pick up the card and assumed that as a former Prime Minister he would be allowed to vote even without an ID card.
5. Inevitably we have to think about what would have happened at a polling station in Freetown had one presidential candidate been turned away because they failed to produce their ID card. We believe ECSL staff would easily allow them to vote because a refusal would lead to open combat and possible burning of the polling station. It’s also possible that international observers would hurriedly condemn that refusal and blame the government for "suppressing the opposition".
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