RAMPANT STEALING OF VEHICLES: IG SOVULA WAKE UP
IG Sovula has been in office long enough now to be able to take criminals off our streets. The initial excuses about him needing time to read through his files and adjust to the new office are not tenable anymore. On the political front, Noah’s Ark wanted us to believe he had hit the ground running in fighting against criminal activities so we are now ready to really hold the two accountable for their seeming inability to significantly reduce criminal activity in Freetown and other major cities.
Over the last 48 hours we received reports of at least three vehicles been stolen from the streets – from IPAM, Campbell Street and at Aberdeen beach area. We don’t yet know how many other people may have suffered the same fate but we make bold to say car theft is beginning to get out of hands. There is now real fear among people who park their vehicles in certain parts of Freetown that their vehicles could be stolen at any time. Before then, the criminals would break into cars to steal valuable items like laptop computers and other electronic devices and cash but now they have become so sophisticated and bold they can strike at any time of the day and drive vehicles away and are NEVER CAUGHT.
We want IG Sovula who now enjoys zooming around Freetown with siren blaring to know the following:
1. As IG he should never allow the people of this country to feel under siege from criminals. In other words we should never be made to choose between living as free people in our own country and being safe.
2. IG Sovula should never allow criminals to carve up areas of Freetown to keep us out because that can only have serious consequences for civil liberties.
3. We are not police officers but we know that traditional methods of crime detection and prevention are completely inadequate against the criminal activities we now experience in our communities.
4. If IG Sovula needs more boots on the ground he should tell us. He should not keep doing the same thing with the same resources and expect a different result.
5. We need the police to prove to us that they are capable of destroying petty criminal gangs in our cities otherwise people may be compelled to defend themselves.
WE ARE LOSING TOO MANY LIVES ON OUR ROADS
The number of people dying on our roads these days is clearly now a source for serious alarm. No doubt road accidents happen all over the world and people die but we can argue safely that some of the accidents that claim the lives of our people are avoidable. We will not make direct reference to any recent accident so that we don’t end up embarrassing any family by intruding into their grief over the loss of a loved one but we believe that the Road Safety Authority and the Police should NEVER create the impression that all accidents are acts of God about which humans can do NOTHING.
To significantly reverse the trend against such fatal accidents something must be done urgently.
1. SLRSA must stop concentrating of raising big revenue for the treasury and make absolutely sure that vehicles that are not roadworthy must never be allowed to be on the roads.
2. Those that get drivers’ licenses to go on the roads should be properly tested according to international standards. We cannot allow some officials to rig registration processes and then cry out when accidents take place.
3. We need effective police patrols on our highways in particular. Those that have travelled to other countries know what it means to be pulled over by a police patrol. We need these patrols to help ensure people abide by prescribed speed limits.
4. Both personnel of the Road Safety Corp and our Force for Good should stop collecting pennies here and there to compromise standards. This is so common. Why has IG Sovula and the new man at SLRSA not dealt a decisive blow to the BOOKING FEE thing at those critical junctions throughout the country?
5. We need a system by which licenses can be suspended for long periods. Taking people to court only for them to plead guilty and be fined ridiculous amounts of money has failed. The same offenders return to the streets the next day to start another round with the police.
IMPLEMENT ACC RECOMMENDATIONS ON LIMKOKWING NOW
Professor of the Education Ministry how far are we now with the Limkokwing issue? Like many Sierra Leoneans we are now very eager to draw a line under this affair and end the suffering of our brothers and sisters caught up in a spider web created by Bra Minks and his Malaysian buddies.
Bra Minks is dead now but he was alive when Biobele and friends reportedly named him as the guy who for ten years ran the MOST CORRUPT MINISTRY in this country.
Frankly, there was nothing left for the ACC to investigate. The Ministry of Finance had basically put all the necessary information in the public domain. The only thing some people didn’t know is that the Limkokwing project in Sierra Leone was the idea of a guy who was thrown out of his own project by Bra Minks. The owners of the Limkokwing brand also ditched the guy and went with the political flow. Now Bra Minks and his political party are gone and Limkokwing is looking for friends.
The ACC has outlined a number of recommendations for the authorities to act on. We call on the government to act now because other students have returned to class leaving behind those at Limkokwing. We make the following suggestions.
1. We can simply do Special Admission for the current students into other institutions offering their courses in this country. All of them will get grants –in –aid just like those in government colleges. Academic credits will be transferred and the various universities will offer the degrees.
2. We say Special Admission because of what we know about the entry requirements that landed many of the students in that college. We will close our eyes to this batch and bring this situation to an end.
3. There are students who have completed their courses without paying fees and they cannot now graduate. We call on Principal to pay the fees of this class at least and free them up.
4. Let’s calculate the monetary value of all the services the college ought to have provided to the government under the Memorandum of Understanding and ask them to pay that into our treasury. Let them also pay their rent for our property starting January 2020.
5. Never again should any minister do such deal. What kind of country was Bra Mink really creating? He set up a two-tier system and created SUPER STUDENTS in a private University at the expense of those in government school. Why should anybody defend that so-called MOU not seen by parliament?
COVID – 19 FIGHT CAN BE WON ONLY WHEN WE STEP UP
Arguably the most controversial and much talked about viral infection in modern times Covid-19 is here with us, a pandemic which, apart from claiming hundreds of thousands of lives has become a nuisance to mankind. Such has been its prolonged disruptive nature that some developed countries are easing restrictions put in place to control its spread. But with the resurgence of new coronavirus cases in some countries, the stark reality is that this virus can’t just go away and the sooner a vaccine is found, the better.
In Sierra Leone we are caught in this quagmire fuelled by ignorance, lawlessness and corruption. You step outside and you come face to face with the rather shambolic attitude of people towards anything connected to containing the spread of the coronavirus.
Nkoroh Kellie and his NACOVAC team would have to roll up their sleeves further as the fault lines in tackling the spread of the virus are just all over the place. Here are some grim spectacles that stare us in the face daily:
1. Apart from the initial public show of compliance with the use of face masks, the inclination has died away, with not too many people masking in public anymore. The much trumpeted compulsory use of face mask for passengers on public transport that was propounded by Transport Owners and Drivers Union didn’t last even a week.
2. Social distancing is just a favourite phrase for campaigners and you have to just see the teeming crowds at market centers or queues at the banks, bus stops and electricity meter selling points. Jaw and cheek is the best description one could find to describe the spectacle.
4. People still do the hugs all over the place with no regard for their safety and that of others. And fingers still just about rub over eyes nose and lips!
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