AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT IS OUT SO WHAT’S THE NEXT ANGLE?
The Auditor General’s report came out in time despite suggestions to the contrary following the suspension of Lara Taylor Pearce and one of her deputies, Tamba Momoh. They are waiting now to face a tribunal for issues bordering on professionalism in the discharge of their duties. The judges have been sworn in and the nation is waiting. We are hoping and praying that the tribunal will be open to the media. We are in a democracy and openness of such processes is a key ingredient.
So far, we’ve not heard anything from Lara concerning the accuracy or not of the document before parliament right now. In fact, the good people of Sierra Leone are already debating the conclusions. We assume that Lara’s report was not tampered with. That then compels us to ask yet again: what is this ‘professionalism or the lack of it’ that is the subject of investigation at this tribunal?
1. The suspension was not about preventing her from releasing the report with editing to save the face of people shown in a bad light by the findings of AASL. As far as we know, it's out in the form Lara left it when she was sent home.
2. The government should now quickly make their case at the tribunal to convince the country about the gravity of the professional infractions that forced Principal to act against Lara and Tamba.
We are also now looking up to the Public Accounts Committee of parliament and ultimately the ACC to do what they MUST do to deal with issues of accountability raised in that report.
Once again we plead with the judiciary to open up the tribunal to the media on behalf of our people.
GREENMOVEMENT CONVENTION POSTPONED AGAIN
We are not even sure the Green Movement convention would go ahead at the end of December as mandated by their Executive Committee a few days ago. This convention has been postponed again and again so it makes sense to recognize this as another holding date that is subject to last minute change. This time, we hear it’s because of the ongoing mid-term census. That may well be a good reason but we are being told by people close to certain candidates that the real reasons are deep down in the murky world of election by delegates.
There are a few things to consider:
1. Delegates from the western world who are known to exclusively back certain candidates have been here for about three weeks now and concern is growing about their jobs out there. Their employers would sack them without further questions if they do not turn up for duty as agreed. It makes no sense for them to lose their jobs by overstaying just to vote for a party leadership candidate. For them to return before the new convention dates represents good news for some candidates in what looks like a tight race.
2. New players have entered the leadership race in the last three weeks. This idea of a two horse race between the BULLET and ambitious SONGA is no more. The relatively new guys need a bit of time to travel across the country meeting the most unreliable set of voters ever. They call them delegates. For those new candidates postponing the convention is a good move.
3. When all is said and done, the delegates need RAW CASH to vote for the main candidates. There should be no hypocrisy about this. We are not saying all delegates are like that. We are saying the vast majority of them worship money and they can sell their soul to get it. The postponement creates a bit of room for candidates to move around and find the money to buy those votes.
4. For those in the hospitality industry in Bo where the convention would be held, they can only win. They may well have now charged those who booked their facilities for pulling out at the last minute. People may have lost their deposits. It’s all in the spirit of Christmas and the New Year. Again, let’s continue to keep in mind that the convention might be moved again.
THE MENACE OF OKADA TOUTS AT MODEL JUNCTION
If you are driving to Model Junction on the Hillside bypass road heading east from Dwazark Junction you will see a group of young men to your right and dozens of motorcycles taxis behind them just after Berry Street junction. Those young people are engaged in a very dangerous struggle for passengers for those OKADAS for a small commission.
It’s from what they collect on that road that they survive so we understand why they are so desperate and sometimes very reckless. We don’t however understand when they turn to criminal behavior at night along that road.
Hundreds of people from the mountain villages of Leicester, Regent and Gloucester and hundreds of FBC students assemble in that place in the morning and evening to commute to work and school and the way the OKADA touts go about getting them into their taxis or on the back of their OKADAS is dangerous. The boys operate in the middle of the main road and in some cases literally pluck people from the back of one OKADA to land them on another.
We hope it never happens but the day a vehicle malfunctions on approach to Model Junction from Albert Academy area on Berry Street, we will be in for something very serious. The whole Model Junction area is becoming a totally impossible place and we have a so-called well-funded TRANSFORM Freetown project that only shows us a lot of pictures of a smiling Mayor Kemokai even when she visits a disaster zone.
We see police officers around with some Road Safety Corp on that Hillside road but we don’t think that bringing order to that place is what they are trying to achieve. We are told FCC workers also collect dues from traders. That’s their only interest.
We’ve been calling attention to various issues around Model Junction on the Hillside bypass road for a long time now. We are happy to be ignored again and again because sometimes it feels really good to come back and say WE TOLD YOU SO.
WHERE IS THAT ROGUE POLICEMAN IN THE ZIMMI WAHALA?
We can confirm that the rogue police commander who slapped that community volunteer at the Zimmi customs has not returned to any part of Pujehun district as a police officer since that incident. He hasn’t returned even as a visitor. We know he was suspended and put under some investigation.
On behalf of the good people of Sierra Leone we want to know what else Sovula has since done about such an outrageous behavior by his officer. There is a lot of evidence of rogue police officers caught in the headlamps of national publicity for bad conduct being quietly transferred to other locations. We served notice at the time that as far this issue was concerned we would not allow them to quietly throw it into the trash bin. We praised how the police behaved to pacify the Zimmi community but Sovula must do something extra to convince the wider Sierra Leone community that his men have turned the corner against indiscipline in the SLP.
1. We want to see the full report detailing their conclusion after the investigation. Is the matter still under investigation? Frankly, but for God’s intervention we could have had our own Derek Chauvin in the Zimmi custom post that day. The slap was heavy and unexpected.
2. We are asking that Michael who was slapped and molested in his area of work be handsomely compensated. Yes, he is not an employee of the government of Sierra Leone but he has been working alongside the customs officers as a community volunteer in that place for more than a decade with the approval of the community because of the special circumstances that prevailed in that place all those years ago. Let’s just think about what Zimmi looked like before the road to Liberia was done.
3. Our police officers need constant refresher training particularly in human rights issues. There are dozens of organizations at home and abroad that are willing to help. Besides, we appreciate the extra measures now put in place to make sure people recruited into the police are of good character but if a man like this rogue officer can slip through their fingers, surely there’s a lot more to be done to make sure only the good guys can wear our police uniforms.
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