PRINCIPAL DEPLOYS THE ARMY AT LAST SO WHAT NOW KOTOR WURIE?
In his capacity as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Sierra Leone, Principal finally gave the orders for the army to be deployed at our international airport and land borders to stop COVID 19 from infiltrating this country which has so far not recorded any case. Principal says it’s now a question of WHEN not IF this Land that we Love will record a case or two. Surely now this is an extremely serious situation to be in.
When Principal inspected Kotor Wurie’s so-called Front Edge Battle Area against COVID 19, he tried his best to inspire the workers on the ground but we did ask at the time about Principal’s own assessment of what he saw. We didn’t get that in public but his decision to now deploy the army convinces us that the borders were wide open and the so-called quarantine facilities absolutely shambolic all along. People are complaining about conditions in the quarantine facilities, there was a kind of social media manhunt for a senior government official who it was reported, escaped quarantine and all that. The cries grew so loud that Senior Prefect moved his office to Lungi, for some hours at least.
1. The situation described above paints a picture of an uncoordinated and poorly-funded fight against COVID 19. That’s dangerous.
2. Asked about the status of the quarantine facilities at a news conference, Kotor Wurie suggested they were better than some of our homes. Sorry sir but we profoundly disagree. What we saw at Lungi Airport Hotel is like a refugee camp somewhere in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
3. We are neither asking for a FIVE STAR HOTEL to be used to quarantine people nor do we expect something just above Pademba Road Jail. That’s what our quarantine facilities look like.
4. The steps announced by Principal in his nationwide broadcast to combat COVID 19 are commendable but there are consequences for civil liberties and businesses.
We ask that those steps be kept under constant review because many Sierra Leoneans want to live just a normal life.
5. Maybe Principal must take direct command of this fight. We repeat our call for him not to receive money or cheques at State House.
CHECKING THINGS OUT ALONG THE HILLSIDE BY-PASS ROAD
This week we’ve been checking things out along the hillside by-pass road that runs from Dwazark Junction in the west to Blackhall road on the east. This road was a project started under Tejan Kabbah, all preliminaries were done. King Messi started the actual construction but at the end of eleven years when he left office the THREE POINT SEVEN KILOMETER road project was halfway through. In fact the second half of the thing looked abandoned. What we’ve heard so far from the SLRA in the last few days suggests that there’s a lot of work to do to complete this road.
Meanwhile we want to draw the attention of the SLRA to something we believe they should urgently deal with on that road otherwise the first phase of this project completed in 2015 will be in danger.
The engineers in charge of this project should drive to the area where construction stopped at the end of the first phase, just around Mountain Cut to the left and see what people are doing there and how that may threaten what has been achieved so far and possibly disrupt the resumption of work. There is a Keke garage and a glorified scrapyard for all rotten vehicles in the central area, it would seem, and above all, an unofficial car wash. Certainly the combined effect of all those operations could end up digging the road itself creating a den for all kinds of anti-social activity that the community will hate to experience even before the remaining phases begin. Sadly we don’t know when this vital road link will be completed.
SLRA should please tell us what's going on at that place and why those so-called disgruntled men are carving out the Right of Way for themselves. Or at least we expect SLRA to clear up this Right of Way so the nation will not be asked for more money in future. Clear the scrapyard now!
SCHOOL CHILDREN ARE NOT OFFICE ASSISTANTS. PLEASE!
We don’t want to name the school at this stage but we can say it is located in the Central Business District, not far from Victoria Park. We’ve found out that some teachers there are in the habit of sending their pupils out of class to buy them food regardless of what it takes even for adults to cross any street in that part of town at that time of day.
We found our way into one of the 'cookery baffa's' near the school only to meet a group of kids buying food for their teachers. They told us that and we investigated by simply following them to see them hand the food over.
We challenged somebody who identified herself as the head teacher. She told us she was sorry and would NEVER repeat that. We were prepared to let this story die upon that assurance but we are doing this now because the practice has continued.
We can assure our so-called head teacher that the next time we enter that compound it will be for her to respond to the evidence we have collected since she assured us they will never send our kids across the road to buy food for them. This is what journalism is about.
We will not allow children in one of the most respected primary schools in Sierra Leone to be treated like that on that head teacher’s watch.
AMBROSE SOVULA RETURNS TO A FAMILIAR PROBLEM
The new-appointed police boss was not so long ago in charge of the traffic division of the FORCE for GOOD. Then as now there’s this problem of traffic police officers extorting money from commercial drivers. It’s almost as if FORCE for GOOD headquarters has given up trying to stop this practice. Sovula is returning to headquarters now, not as a divisional boss but the boss of the whole institution. Congratulations sir. We wish you the very best.
The practice we want to call your attention to right now is not new but it’s beginning to look like it’s spreading across traffic police positions in Freetown and at checkpoints on roads leading out of the city. It has always been common knowledge that commercial vehicles were the ones targeted by the police for extortion clearing the way for even the most reckless private vehicle owners to get away with anything. Traffic police officers would now pull private cars over, approach the drivers, mostly people they don’t know and ask for “small tin for buy water” or “small tin for buy cookery”.
We know that the conditions under which these people work are tough but the attitude of our officers begging so openly on the streets is unacceptable. We know of people who would, from time to time stop by and drop a few Leones for them unsolicited so what is all this desperations about now.
Recently, we experienced this extortion tactic at three different locations in Freetown. The Mile 38 checkpoint is the worst place for this kind of thing. So we call on Sovula to do his job and avoid a business as usual kind of attitude. Things must change sir.
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