By Joseph A. Kamanda
Law enforcement in Sierra Leone under the undemocratic dictatorship of the president Julius Maada Bio is shamefully relegating to regime policing. A policing service that continue to undermine, reverse democratic gains, threatening the hard earned peace and stability of the country, is not good for political tolerant, cohesion and national unity. And policing in the interests of the ruling class, as if the police has lost its constitutional terms of reference to the regime of the day is uncalled for.
Sierra Leone Police unnecessary wild chased of vulnerable women protesters on 4th July 2022 was unreasonable. The peaceful women were merely asking authorities to address the escalating economic hardship in the country. The police could have done much better in prosecuting notorious offenders instead of let go murders – fugitives like LAC and others, than just focusing on women were fighting a just course.
With such selective law enforcement that has left many wondering as to what is the exact responsibilities of the SLP, if the prevention, detection and investigation of crime and criminals are no longer met with the desired public expectations, as required by the laws of the land. And if the protection of life and property, identification and prosecutions of offenders continue to be fully compromised by the police, under the watch of the Inspector General of Police, (IGP) Ambrose Michael Sovula, then the SLP leadership must change hands before the elite force continue to be faced with public disgrace.
IGP Sovula is serving on a borrowed time, but Bio continues to keep him on the job because he (Sovula) is the only stooge that can take the wrong orders from above like he did in the recent arrests and detention of the Unity Party leader, Femi Claudius-Cole, who doubles as the mouthpiece for the Consortium of Progressive Political Parties (CoPPP), the Leader and Chairman of the National Grand Coalition (NGC), Dr Dennis Bright.
Those women protested against the trending economic adversity, but they arrested and detained at the Criminal Investigations Department, for what the CID head described as ‘unlawful protest’ and disorderly conducts.’ For Dr Bright, the police alleged that he was part of the planning of the protest, which was why he was detained at the same poorly kept facility. The Head of CID, Robert on Tuesday 5th July 2022 told a radio interview in Freetown that lawyers or not, if the police wants they can grant the political detainees bail, and if they are require to be charged, then police can charge them to court, irrespective of them being over-detained.
Sadly though, police work has been reduced to tools of intimidation; arrests and detentions of political opponents and people the Government consider hold harsh sentiments against the system, which are far from the roles and responsibilities of the police force.
Also charged with the tasks of maintaining order, ensure safety and security of all, keep the country’s roads safe and providing access to justice as legitimized by the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, are now hardly observed by the SLP, due to compromise. Compromise through booking of road users via handshake-extortions of moneys from drivers with faulty vehicles. Police also have other means of condoning lawlessness from offenders whilst justice is being dispensed to the highest bidders. These are legitimate concerns that should be addressed by the police leadership with the utmost sense of urgency, rather than always chasing the vulnerable as they did to women protesters, who were calling for better standards of living.
Studies have it that the constitutional mandates of the SLP are no longer applied in police operations under IGP Sovula whose discretional policing to please the powers that be keep undermining the fragile peace of the country.
Unimaginably, Sovula, Bio and his paymasters have come a long way in destroying the legacies of Keith Biddle; the London Metro Police guru, who reformed the post-war SLP into a “Force for Good.” Sovula’s immediate predecessors won’t forgive him to messing up with their legacies. Sovula must be held accountable for his deliberate violations of people’s rights and destructions of structures left force by his predecessors.
In the areas of protections of rights, the police was only expected to grant the women protesters permit, and protect them prior, during and even after the stage of their peaceful protest against high cost of essential commodities including fuel, rice. Their message was clear, aimed at seeking the attentions of the authorities to call on Government to reduce the prices of goods and services in the country. That was just what the women protesters had wanted to communicate to Government, but the police in its failure in protecting them, ended up inflicting defeat on the Government. And don’t ask how much was lost to the day of the standoff.
No matter the situation, Government is always expected to ameliorate the sufferings of the masses, and even if such concerns would not have been raise by the women, it can be always brought to the attention of president Bio as head of Government. Say for instance the women couldn’t have asked any of the opposition political parties or a Government in waiting. Does anyone really expect Bio to fix the problems? Raising such concerns formed part of the constitutional rights of citizens, and there is no crime in seeking the attentions of the Government on such issues.
The women know very well where to channel their concerns much as the July 4th 2022 situation was concerned, to which Government should have allowed and grant them audience, and grab the opportunity of knowing their concerns to better position the state to fix the glitches.
Government however accepted self-defeat, through police failures by chasing and arrest of vulnerable women, for staging a peaceful protest. Globally protests are part of democratic processes everywhere. Government paved way for owned defeat secured from the ‘winning women’ who rendered the whole country to a day standoff, that led to huge economic forfeiture of over USD 1.9M. That was the biggest defeat of Government ever. Thus arrest and detention Madam Claudius-Cole, Dr Bright and the women will never solve the economic hardship, nor will the Sovula led regime police address the issues. Sovula believe in unprofessionalism, high handed policing, with maximum use of force against civilians.
Monday 4th July 2022 incident has exposed the unprofessionalism of the SLP. The failure of the SLP to offer professional advice at the top, especially in the women protest, also uncovered the incompetence of IGP Sovula, and laid him bare as a yes man. A national security head who is on record for subscribing to a secrete oath for accomplishing whatever diabolic assignments he is placed by president Bio, the Government through the Internal Affairs Ministry, as long as it is done in the best interests of the aforesaid entities and personalities.
The SLP has been reduced to unprofessionalism and perpetual misconducts. That is why personnel deployed on road traffic assignments can do whatever they want, and get away with it as long as lucrative handshakes are skilfully discharged from lawless road users and traffics crime offenders. No need to ponder over the spate of fatal road traffic crashes and the proliferations of faulty vehicles plying everywhere on the country’s roads as if there are no enforcement measures. This is because the police keep blind eyes to offenders, their faulty vehicles, collect moneys from them aid and abate them to commit whatever crime they feel like on the road, as long as they have booked with the police.
On police untrained law enforcement conducts, dozens of vulnerable women were arrested on Monday 4th July 2022 by the police for staging a peaceful protest against economic hardship in Sierra Leone. And the SLP being the true representative of the laws of the land, must obliged itself to serve all; rich, poor, abled or physically challenged – disabled, veterans, active services personnel who expected to be protected by the SLP as by the laws. By so doing, the police should serve as a twin breast mother; serving all instead of being a regime might; owned and fully controlled by the powers that be, as the SLP has transformed itself into an unprofessional regime protector, all due to poor and unethical institutional leadership of the elite force.
Police no longer prevent, detect, facilitate access to the judicial system and investigate crimes with urgency as required by its conventional mandates. Rather, policing has been subjected to the condoning of crimes and criminals; in drug smugglings, addictions, illegal gambling, prostitution amongst other organized crimes to a point that the IGP, Sovula allegedly receiving his fair periodical quotas from foreign and local drug dealers at Lumley, Regent, Fredrick Streets and other secrete cartels in central Freetown, if not from within the country as whole.
Forum’s recent encounters with police personnel deployed at TUCO Hastings in the Western Rural District, discovered that at several instances when the IGP was recorded whilst begging junior personnel in negotiations for and on behalf of Nigerian nationals who were arrested with large quantum of ‘cocaine,’ thousands of cartoons of ‘tramadol’, ‘kush’ and other hard drugs who were detained in ells at Hastings, as if that is the only reason for the existence of the police. This is unthinkable in that a state security agency, charged with the task of fighting such problems, aids and abates crimes and criminals at the detriments of the state is a matter of serious concern.
That is to say, the roles of the police are being eclipsed by orders from above. Orders from above have placed so many innocent people including opposition politicians and their followers, journalists and civic activists in deplorable police cells, without trials neither being charged to court for prosecution under the very watch of IGP Sovula.
Recent among them are the arrests and detentions of Retired Col. Joseph Sheku Jalloh, along with nine APC supporters from Bendugu, held in cells for long at Mena Police Division in Makeni and later charged to court. A deposed APC Members of Parliament, late Hon Sheriffu Carew, who died three years ago shortly after his released from CID cell, all form challenging law enforcement owes of the SLP.
The police apart from its continuous blunders in handling democratic policing, as the country is approaching the June 24th 2023 multi-tier elections, is expected to display high level neutrality, professionalism and ethical standards; by working in the interests of all sides of the multi-party democratic divide, to avoid undue blames.
It cloud be recalled that apart from the Bendugu bye-election violence, the police is also on record for its high handedness in policing several electioneering processes in the last four years. Constituency 110, in the Western Rural District, Tonko Limba, Bafodia and the Koinadugu District Council bye-elections were all placed under high armed police personnel, backed by political intimidation under the supervision of IGP Sovula.
Working fairly with all political parties in the democratic process irrespective of individual political status in the dispensations, he/she deserves the protections of the SLP, making equal opportunities are given to all sides especially in the enforcements of the law and fair dispensation of justice, which is lack in the IGP Sovula leadership as police boss.
Failure to play by the fairness rules in democratic policing, poses the penchant of undermining the peace and stability of a country, not to talk of the credibility of the police.
