POLICE ALL OVER THE PLACE BUT CLIQUES TERRORIZE CONGO WATER
Newstead Lane in the Congo Water community in Wellington area on the eastern fringes of Freetown was the scene of a brazen attack on innocent residents by male youths allegedly belonging to a clique. The attack last Thursday took place at dusk and was carried out by the obviously drugged youths wielding machetes and other projectiles. They forced their way into homes and stole laptop computers, cell phones and cash from terrified residents. People passing by were also robbed and beaten up.
The attack was said to have lasted for an hour and left several people seriously injured. People called the Police but were told they had no vehicle then to take their men to the neighborhood that was under siege. We are as perturbed as the people because the area is somehow surrounded by police stations and there is a police post at Congo Water 300 hundred yards away!
The excuse given later by the cops there was they have no armed officer deployed to the post but distress calls to the police are expected to be acted upon by personnel in the communications unit which should then radio the necessary command units for action. It is hard to imagine that such lawlessness could take place in an area that is a three minute drive from the major or regional police headquarters, the Kissy Mess Mess Police Division for that eastern part of the city.
The people were let down by the police that evening and no longer feel safe. Imagine the anguish kids went through as they watched their parents beaten up by those miscreants! No armed guard at the police post, no vehicle, unacceptable and unbelievable excuses by the police!
Somehow, somewhere there are elements within the force that are making the establishment look very bad. When trust in the police is lost, then people might be forced to do things their own way. Some personnel in the police could still be overlooking the fact that they took an oath to protect life and property, and that their pay comes from the very taxes paid by the very people they many a time abandon to robbers. Sad. Very sad!
THE COUNTRY SHOUTING “LET THERE BE LIGHT”
From North to South and then the East, Morba Kanja has been going all over the place signing contracts and shouting LET THERE BE LIGHT. From what we’ve been reading on social media, six district headquarter-towns, some of which have not seen electricity for three decades should light up in just over one year. We are talking Kabala and Kambia in the north, Moyamba, Pujehun and Bonthe in the South and Kailahun in the East. We cannot even begin to imagine how people in those places will react when the lights are finally switched on but we know how much the local economy will benefit from the power.
We hope Morba will understand why we are making the following observations:
1. We don’t know how integrated the local political and civil society structures in the beneficiary towns are in these projects. We believe ordinary local people who are normally not hungry for money and politically-correct should be brought onboard to help monitor the work.
2. Please we don’t want an 18 month program to drag out into two, or three years. If that happens, the whole project will be thrown into politics and ridicule. We must do this on time and on budget. We will NOT allow any upward adjustment of the budget from now on. We don’t want a future Biobele asking the same questions.
3. While we join our relatives out in those communities to celebrate the return of electricity, we call on EDSA to make sure the tariffs are the same. No special privileges no mixed messaging on who owns the power generators that will be installed. We don’t want another civil disturbance based on a political lie.
SOCIAL MEDIA GOSSIP AND THE “SACKING” OF RADO YOKIE
What started out as one of those baseless social media junks last Thursday evening could well turned out to be true. We are told that Mines Minister Rado Yokie was woken up from his sound sleep by friends wanting to know if he was still the Minister of Mines in the New Direction Administration. The speculation went on all night and early on Friday, we got confirmation from a very reliable source that indeed Rado had been thrown out of government and Tim Kabba was our new minister in that vital sector of our economy. We were still waiting for official announcement by the time we went to press. Because the public has not been informed by the usual channels, this may all turn out to be a MID RAINY SEASON DREAM in Sierra Leone. So all we can say for now is that we shall be talking about the issues around Rado Yokie’s potentially brief run as minister in subsequent editions. We however have something to say to those still in office about social media.
1. For you there is no fake news on social media as long as your name or your ministry is in the frame, check out the story until you are satisfied that it’s TRULY FAKE.
2. Scan through social media as frequently as you wash your hands these days against COVID -19. Five minutes away from social media should be enough for mischief makers to create negative public opinion around you. You have to get in there or order your surrogates to go there and put out your own version of event.
3. In fact, never go to bed in the evening without spending at least TWO HOURS on social media. When you wake up at any time of the night scan through again. We know it’s crazy but that’s public guys. Otherwise withdraw to your farm and enjoy time with your staff and the birds.
TIME FOR PPRC TO SCRUTIZE OUR PARTIES
Local elections are some two years away and we expect the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) to begin the process of working with the parties registered with the Commission. We cannot tell now whether new ones could emerge or those that participated in the 2018 elections would still be around. And we cannot hide the fact that in the polls two years ago, some political parties were not up to scratch when it came to meeting all the requirements needed by PPRC.
The Commission was quite generous to a good number of them, as they had no properly run offices or credible executive representation beyond Freetown. Some never gave allowances to those that offered their services. We would advise that they look at the structure of some these parties that the last time revolved around only one figure for the most part. Structures were non- existent and we remain skeptical about their seriousness in the democratic space.
The PPRC boss Abdulai Bangura must get his team to thoroughly scrutinize some of our parties to save the electorate from being confused and cheated by parties that exist only in name. We will not accept any brief case parties being certified to put their names on the ballot. In fact we want them to know that no GOODLUCK JONATHAN money is coming here for the foreseeable future.
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