Government since April 4th 2018 it came in to serve closed to three years now has through the use of the unethical police force continued to take innocent bloods of civilians almost every month, on orders of high handedness of security forces through the use of fire arms against vulnerable people.Recent among such inhumane acts are massive unlawful killings in Makeni, where police shot and killed ‘five’ protesters for challenging the transfer of a thermal plant from their community to Lungi.
Police unprofessional killings of civilians have come on from day one, as if there is no other means of handling disorderly conducts by our state security forces, except the use of fire arms, which is very much condemnable. And blood taking through the killings of armless people is not good for a country that has experienced turbulent periods in the past.
Therefore Mr. Inspector General of Police Ambrose Sovula call your personnel to order, retrain them on professional democratic policing before they continue to misrepresent the SLP to the world.
The unlawful killings of innocent civilians in Makeni by SLP personnel has received wide condemnations from Sierra Leoneans and friends of Sierra Leone round the globe, in that even though the regional Abu Abu Koroma has sounded a warning, yet such was never expected from a security unit that always calls itself a force for good.
It must have been a premeditated move, stemming from what the regional minister north Koroma had earlier said. So it is not surprising at all to those who have been following statement and use of power activities of the minister of state. He had long spoken the minds of the Government. And the community should therefore take caution moving forward with the painful grief for the lost of their loved ones.
What should not be forgotten by state actors at every level is that the peace of the country should not be downplayed by whoever is charged with the task of maintaining peace and stability of the nation, especially when so much have been spent on stabilizing the country by previous political administrations.
Similarly so you are expected to ensure that the people enjoy peace and stability, with confident and not fear of being shot by an armed police personnel.
For Makeni with the grief for the lost of their loved ones, the people are no longer at peace, not just the silent of guns means peace to them.
We wholeheartedly join the loud call by rights groups in damning the police, and the authorities for tolerating constantan takings of blood of innocent people, through gun shots in the name of restoring law and order.
We call for independent investigations into the said police operations.
That must stop now and the people of Sierra Leone should be equally given their democratic rights to protest, while you provide security for the state.
Law and order can be restored through other means of riot control measures-using hot water tanks, robber bullets you name it, which are not use by the unprofessional SLP, in their handlings of riotous conducts.
Forum Newspaper observes with grave concern that the killings of innocent people by police personnel has left the community in deep fear for their lives, no matter how much investigations being conducted into the unlawful deaths such human vacuums could hardly be filled.
We want to call on authorities concerned to retrain personnel to respect the lives of the people they claimed to be always protecting.
It could be recalled that recently so many people lost their lives in several police shootings, as recent as the attempted Pademba Road prison break few months ago, one at Lunsar, two at Tombo, one at Loko Masamah, one at Mile 91, one at Tonkon Limba and one at Grafton, all by armed SLP personnel under the leadership of the Inspector General of Police Ambrose Sovula and the Government headed by President Julius Maada Bio.
This medium holds the police as an institution to a very high esteem and we always expect them to be professional in the execution of their duties, with the exceptions of the taking the lives of people, which is not the right recommendation for the SLP. A force that has been wrongly used by politicians against the people it should be protecting as constitutionally required.
As professionals the police should refrain themselves from always being happy trigger and rebrand the image of the institution – thereby engaging in constructive community policing approaches as prescribed democratic peace policing principles, instead of keep relegating to the primitive use of fire arms to take the bloods of innocent people only to please regional minister Abu Abu Koroma and the government.
We are therefore once more calling on the Government and leadership of the police to stop taking innocent lives, for Sierra Leonean lives matter everywhere including those in Makeni, Mile 91, Pademba prison, Lunsar, Tonko Limba, Grafton, Loko Masamah, Tombo and all other places where police high handedness have led to blood takings by the unprofessional use of gunshots
