By Kef Dukulay
William Fayia Sellu’s leadership has come with great pride to the institution of policing and the maintenance of law and order in Sierra Leone generally. He started on a shaky ground, welcomed by the most challenges confronting the security of the state at the time; with opposition election result denial in the aftermath of the June 2023 multi-tier polls heightening in calculated violent upheavals that tested his leadership.
Those disturbances, concentrated in opposition APC strongholds, were aimed at destabilizing the state as they actually graduated into brazen attempts at overthrowing the government of President Bio. But for proactive leadership those incidents, which claimed lives of both civilians and security servicemen had the propensity of plunging the nation into chaos.
There has certainly been no IGP whose tenure grasped with so much security challenges in our recent governance history than Sellu’s. But he has been able to navigate through with his exemplary model of policing administration as he leveraged on the collaborative relationship with the wider national security apparatus and local communities.
It takes an Inspector-General of a national Police Force to successfully investigate and charge to court matters of high political interest and tension; and in Sellu’s case involving a former president. The handling of events leading to the invitation and subsequent probing of former President Ernest Bai Koroma for his connection with the November 26, 2023 coup plotters raised the bar of the Sierra Leone Police in the eyes of the public, giving the IGP a tap on the back. Majority of Sierra Leoneans who gossiped on that development believed the police would not bring in the former president for questioning sans issue, given his political weight. But damning all odds, he gave the surprise; and he may not be aware, but Mr. Fayia Sellu’s leadership attracted public trust as a stern, result-oriented commander from that decisive action.
To achieve all this demands a trusted workforce. To strengthen the operational aspect of policing, IGP Sellu came up with the pragmatic idea of posting equally result-oriented operational and trusted workaholics to local policing units as Local Unit Commanders (LUC) across the country. The changes concomitantly went with an increase in manpower deployment in trouble-prone districts like Western Rural, Port Loko and Bombali.
That strategy yielded tremendous rapid response dividend with swift police handling of perceived or real threats to peace from thence.
Sellu’s policing model is the paradox of camaraderie and uncompromising disciplinary stance. He is less in words but cannot be misunderstood for callousness, nor taken for granted either. He feels the pain of every police officer in the discharge of his or her duty in trying circumstances but that does not warrant overlooking regimental ethics and patriotism as he would often say: “that is what we are signed to as police.”
To him, the job comes first. Friendship or comradeship matters, and surely with his long service in the force at various levels, he’d had many; most of whom he is now IGP to but of enigma to his chi is compromising duty!
However, for a police boss’s command to be listened to and executed promptly and without rancour, the welfare of the rank and file needs not be taken lightly. With IG Sellu’s leadership, police officers are getting more attention than before. “We don’t feel any bias towards personnel in the name of politics or ethnicity; and we are now getting proper uniforms and adequate policing gadgets and new opportunities for the young to grow…” Many a serving police officer would tell you this about IGP Sellu’s tenure. They can also vouchsafe that within his tenure, the SLP has conducted several hands-on training, and entered into more international partnerships for contemporary training opportunities.
His directives are performance based; taking hard work, dedication and nationalism into consideration. He normally would say of his men: “when I know you are not committed, I know what to do, not because we are friends.”
With IGP Sellu, the human rights record of the SLP has got some dust removed, giving hope for a dawn to achieving its ‘core values of professionalism, impartiality and commitment to being corrupt-free.’
His belief in the police getting what they want without hurting has endeared him to many, especially politicians. He quietly brings people to do what is correct without coersion. There have been instances where politicians have tried to get their way against the police but IG Sellu has always stood his ground on issues bordering on the peace of the country. The law is supreme and the police are the enforcers but Sellu’s mode of enforcement provokes no acrimony. He has certainly got the most confrontation with opposition politicians than any other IGP yet he always ensures the best is achieved in policing to maintain the peace and security of the state.
There is now this crucial moment for the police that requires the astute leadership of Sellu more than ever before. The police is to transform from a Force (for good) to a Service (to the people) and the need for IGP Sellu to stay and oversee this transformation cannot be overemphasized.
His enhanced community policing model provides the appropriate leadership opportunity for him in rolling out or implementing the transition.
A man more of deeds than words, Sellu has so far upheld police pledge to upholding ‘integrity, respect for human rights and ensuring the freedom of all individuals.’ There has been no arbitrary arrest of civil society activists or journalists for their critical voices under IGP Sellu as he believes in working with institutions when issues of policing arise involving their members. With this manner of policing, the SLP can be credited as a major state support institution for the achievement of the ‘Father of Free Speech Recognition’ bestowed on President Bio by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) for promoting press freedom and creating the enabling civic space for democracy to thrive.
His meekness does not allow him to believe in going after people using his position but rather works within the realms of the law. He is not known by serving personnel for vindictiveness, nor for imposing disciplinary measures with malice. But all they would tell you about their boss is that “he does not take regimental breaches lightly.’
IGP Sellu therefore, has a legacy to leave with the police institution. He has started the journey of transformation so his instrumentality cannot surely end with the old order but be given the opportunity to take the police on this new journey of transition from a ‘Force’ to a ‘Service’ institution and be remembered as the pioneer of ‘service or community policing’ in Sierra Leone.
That is why at the recent launch of the Police Strategic Development Plan (2025-2029), he emphasized that “our strength as a nation lies in our collaborative determination to confront global challenges such as drug and human trafficking, money laundering and arms smuggling among others in order to overcome those challenges.”
Though a perennial problem, his actions in exposing and chasing drug dealers are commendable; and with the police working with communities, those proactive actions have served to minimize the proliferation and blatant use of kush, tramadol and other harmful drugs on our streets, His tenure has also recorded largest amounts or quantities of narcotic drug seizures and public destruction by TOCU or the Transnational Organized Crime Unit of the police; with equally record-high prosecutions than ever before.
