Francis Munu, IGP
By Fasalie Sulaiman Kamara
Senior human rights officer in the Public Affairs Department of the Human Rights Commission in Sierra Leone has referred to the police as “unprofessional and accountable” to the citizenry of Sierra Leone.
Henry Mustapha Sheku told Politico that the Inspector General of Police, Francis Munu was quoted by the media as saying that he instructed the police to use nonlethal weapons at Guard Street where it later emerged that a pupil of the Ansarul Islamic Secondary School was shot and killed by police.
He said the police had confirmed to the commission that they had stunt guns, hot water canons and tear-gas canisters which they could have used to control such riots instead of using live bullets.
“The rules of police engagement indicate that a warning shot must be fired before shooting at anyone. There was no evidence of a warning shot. In most of the shootings and killings by police, the perpetrators have not been brought to book”, Sheku said.
He cited the OCTEA mining company killings in Kono, the African Minerals Bumbuna killings, the killing of the US marine at Lumley Beach, the Guard Street killing and a host of others as testaments to his claims.
He noted that the police hierarchy were the duty bearers and should be held responsible for all of those shootings and killings. He said they thought that the police had implemented a number of recommendations but expressed disappointment that the sticking points were yet to be implemented.
The human rights officer therefore called on government to harmonize the Operations Support Division (OSD) and that of the general duty police.
“From the Bumbuna public hearing, it was revealed that the OSD doesn’t take instructions from the general duty even where they are superior. It was about time the government reviewed the OSD wing of the Sierra Leone Police or disbanded it all together as recommended by TRC”, he said.
“All of the things the TRC accused the OSD of are still vivid today. There are a lot of flaws in the recruitment processes of the police. Recruitment is done through recommendations by senior citizens and stakeholders”, Sheku said.
Meanwhile, the director of police operations, Assistant Inspector General Al-Sheik Kamara, said there was no police cover-up in the recent Ansarul riot police shooting.
He told journalists at a briefing in Freetown that the director of police operations confirmed the school pupil died of bullet wounds.
“The postmortem result confirmed the bullet wound,” he said, contradicting an earlier official police statement that the pupil died of stabbing.
“This was as a result of hasty investigation and media rush by journalists to find out what happened”, he said, adding that they had suspended a number of police officers who were being investigated.
He said they would send files of the suspended police to the director of public prosecution for any possible action.
The AIG told the media that they regretted the Ansarul school riot and urged the public not to blame the top cadre of the police for the actions of junior officers.
(C) Politico 26/11/13
