KADIJA’S HEART WRENCHING DEATH
Sierra Leoneans woke up on Saturday morning to news about the grisly termination of the life of a 5-year-old girl named Khadija Saccoh. Initial autopsy report says she was brutally raped. The nation is in shock and people are incensed at the paedophilic and sadistic nature of the assault on a lovely girl. Her photos which have inundated social media show a very beautiful innocent child who sadly died in such horrendous manner. The victim’s 20-year-old male cousin is said to be the prime suspect and the mother of the suspect (the deceased’s maternal aunt) too is being questioned by police. Khadija was reportedly US-bound for a reunion with her father but by a wretched twist of fate, that was not to be. It is quite frightening to note that her relatives were in a rush to have her buried when there were telling signs to suggest foul play. Detectives working on the case must widen the scope of their investigations to include other relatives who might be complicit in the gruesome crime or the apparent cover-up.
Neighbours and other persons must be encouraged to come forward with any information that could shed more light on the case. Khadija might have been subjected to such abusive ordeal for quite a period of time and there was seemingly no one to protect her.
Khadija’s situation is now under public glare but how many more girls in similar situations got this attention? First Lady Fatima Bio re-awakened the conscience of this nation to the issue of sexual abuse of vulnerable girls with the launch of her Hands Off Our Girls Campaign. She and her husband, the President, have been very passionate about this fight to protect girls from paedophiles and we all have to collectively as a nation, look beyond the fringes of politics and lend our support in sincerely addressing what has obviously become a real national emergency. Despite efforts by the first family, cases of sexual assault on girls have shot up and it could be argued that some of these shameless men who prey on the girls, could have been emboldened by a number of factors namely family or communal ties and the still corrupt behaviour of some officials in the Police or Judiciary.
For example, before the enactment of the amended Sexual Offences Act in 2019, a man accused of raping to death a 9-year-old girl in Waterloo some five years ago, was given a derisory jail term of less than six years, and that offender is probably free by now. And what could be said of the toddler whose lifeless body was found a few miles away in the Adonkia/Goderich environs, after she had been raped in late 2018?
Khadija’s death should be a wakeup call for government to prioritize support for especially the Gender Affairs Ministry and the Family Support Unit of the Police. We also have to quickly put in place a Sex Offenders’ Register of all known or convicted sex offenders. They must not be possession of a passport, and should they smuggle themselves into other countries, authorities should immediately be made aware of their presence and they must be denied access to places with greater concentration of children anywhere including schools.
Minister Manty Tarawallie should be given the resources to recruit more social workers to track and monitor vulnerable girls in communities who are prone to sexual abuse, servitude and beatings. The Gender Ministry should be resourced to use all communication channels including community outreach to send home a strong message to those hurting young children. How many of our young Social Work graduates are out there doing practically nothing! Providing just 320 million Leones or US$ 32,000 in the 2020 national budget for the entire operations of the Family Support Unit does not in any way match the level of importance the present government attaches to the rape of particularly girls, as seen in its robust emphasis in ensuring the coming into law of the amended Sexual Offences Act with severe penalties for sex offenders.
As for Khadija’s case, we will keep our eyes open on the matter as the authorities try to put together evidence against the alleged perpetrator(s) of this heinous crime against that poor girl.
Sierra Leone Migrants in Niger face uncertainty
Folks, 136 Sierra Leoneans are stuck in the desert town of Agadez, Niger after unsuccessfully trying to go through North Africa to reach Europe. International Office for Migration (IOM) had brought them to the arid Niger location. These mostly youths have spent four months there now, waiting to be repatriated, but it seems the wait has no prospect of coming to an end any time soon.
The predicament of the Sierra Leoneans was our lead story past Friday and we believe our presentation of the facts inevitably threw the onus of getting these stranded people back, squarely on the shoulders of our Foreign Ministry. IOM, despite their dwindling resources, want to further take up the task of bringing them to Sierra Leone, and are only waiting for official clearance from the authorities in Freetown.
Are we saying here that bureaucracy or just sheer neglect from Freetown would see these compatriots continue to suffer? Some of the 22 countries whose nationals were there too, have ensured their safe return and that has affected the Sierra Leoneans psychologically. Our Foreign Ministry officials should open lines of communication with IOM now, to kick start the process of putting these people on air transport to Freetown. That would end the suffering of these youths and save the country from further media scrutiny and international embarrassment.
For now, the mostly young Sierra Leonean men are out there in far- away Niger have a new dream, and that is to return home, after their earlier dream of going to Europe was dashed on the sands of Libya and Algeria.
Bushy Jui Government Teaching Hospital frontage is an eyesore
The Jui hospital along the Freetown – Waterloo highway is architecturally the most impressive looking health structure in the country in modern times. Even visitors to the country will say the structure is done with a touch of western taste. There was a lot of fanfare when the hospital was opened years ago. Somehow down the years, the place has reportedly experienced a slump in operating standards and even the structure itself. For the former critics say many of the machines installed by the Chinese are no longer working with the Ministry of health more conspicuously now in charge, whilst even the front view of the hospital has become an unpleasant sight to behold. Tall grass has taken hold of the entire front stretch of the hospital facing the busy highway. These are no flowers at all? Even more appalling is the gradual transformation of the place into a dumping site, with rubbish strewn around. Where are the hospital cleaners? Close to curfew on the night of Sunday 21st June, 2020, soldiers and police deployed at the hospital to provide security for its temporary status as treatment centre for Covid – 19 patients, had to pursue a group of rowdy riff-raff boys who had used the bushy hospital cover to fight over loot presumably stolen from somewhere around. We shouldn’t sit by and see an otherwise beautiful government structure go through a process of dilapidation because of neglect by people entrusted with the responsibility of running the place. After all, a lot of money was spent to erect the very facility. And when do we really start taking proper care of our public buildings?
And can Police do something about Kossoh town/ Jui Junction please
The road coming down from Kossoh Town and emptying into the main Jui junction highway is a nightmare for motorists and pedestrians during evening rush hour. Some poda-poda drivers are in the habit of placing their vehicles right in the middle of the road on the bend close to the gas station and wait for passengers going to Waterloo right there, thereby preventing motorists coming from the Regent/ Kossoh town end from accessing the main highway. The Police are hardly seen around and there is absolutely no control whilst people suffer in their vehicles or jostle their way on foot in the sheer chaos, with commercial bikes having to struggle through as well.
There is no order at that particular point, with all the huge traffic police presence often seen there early in the day. Only when an accident happens would they emerge. In fact the Jui police are notorious for imposing what we would call personal fines usually 50,000 Leones on especially Jui/ Bottom Mango taxi drivers for parking to pick up passengers in the so-called unauthorized places in the morning or early afternoons, but do fail to act in the evening when the action of the poda-poda drivers could be more dangerous.
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