Fear tactics largely characterised by extensive employments of armed security personnel of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) and the Sierra Leone Police has less than five months to the elections raised a cause for public concern.
Sierra Leone as a nation continues to be highly militarized with armed RSLAF and SLP personnel roaming everywhere, which has huge potential for undermining the outcome of the June 24, 2023 polls, peace, security and general safety in the country.
The spread of fire arms is creating fear in the minds of the people, considering the recent history of a bitter civil war that reversed the country for well over ten years. Arms proliferations by rebel warring factions of the Revolutionary United Front and their allies caused so much damage to lives and property. Hence, guns everywhere in the country as Sierra Leoneans prepare to go to the polls will undoubtedly affect the turnout of voters on 24 June this year, and it will probably cause voter apathy in the entire process due to fear of rudely being intimidated by happy trigger armed security personnel, most of whom are always reported to be under the high influence of tramadol and kush.
In order to avoid a situation with the tendency of causing fear in remote constituencies, wards, districts and regions, where there would be deployment of heavily armed security personnel, leaders should therefore consider downsizing their troops from civilian communities.
This is because having heavily armed security personnel around during voting day would surely discourage voters to go out and vote for fear of high presence of armed police and military personnel in public.
Militarizing communities ahead of the elections will also negatively impact the outcome of the process in certain geopolitical areas. So the fear tactics being employed by the Bio-led SLPP government through the use fire arms, backed by the deployment of Police and military personnel, should stop at once prior to the elections in order to restore confidence in the process.
It is unacceptable in that Sierra Leone is not governed by military rule and the country is longer at war for state security personnel to be roaming all over the country with all sorts of deadly weapons.
We know Bio was an officer of the then Sierra Leone Army, but he has long retired from service and he is now in the capacity of a democratically-elected civilian president, which is why we do not even expect him to have reverted us to this brand of democratic-military rule of his, aimed at subduing his political opponent and critical voices in the stunted democratic space.
State security authorities must therefore demilitarize all civilian communities especially the streets at nights and strategically engage in vigorous patrols rather than always mounting roadblocks at night to extort allegedly money from people.
In view of restoring public confidence in the system, heads of the security sector including the Office National Security, the SLP and the RSLAF should jointly demilitarize all civilian communities and reassure the people of their safety and security, even before the country goes into the electioneering process for good, as the presence of gun is no peace.
And the demonstrations of high level of public confidence and trust in state security systems also remain key in the process moving forward, for the sustenance of peace and stability. Confidence in security system will restore development and investors’ confidence, not to talk of voters who have already been cowed into fears at various constituencies, districts, wards and regions across the country, caused by persistent police arrests of twenty-six alleged main opposition All People’s Congress APC party members and supporters for disorderly conducts at separate locations at their ongoing lower level elections.
However, before the ugly situation graduates to a level wherein the proliferations of fire arms will prevent people from going out on elections day to cast their votes for their choice of candidates, urgent measures need to be put in place to restore the people’s confidence that there will be peace, security and public safety.
Elections are hardly conducted amidst war and unrest. And as a matter of fact, Sierra Leone is not at war anymore, for security personnel to be intimidating vulnerable people with arms.
Thus Government through the Commander-In-Chief of the RSLAF – President Julius Maada Bio – should professionally spearhead the demilitarization of the streets and all civilian communities, making sure that there is total peace and stability in Sierra Leone under his leadership. Doing so goes a long way in sanitizing the democratic process from the already instilled fear tactics being strategically used by the Bio-led SLPP government. There is virtually no need for such spate of increase of fire arms at public places, and especially in the hands of security personnel everywhere in the country. This situation serves as threat to peace in the country, which is why FORUM as a watchdog of society, joins the loud call on government and its partners to see reasons to give respite to peaceful citizens.
We would like the Bio regime to allow the people to move freely and go about their business and activities without fear of being interrupted by any armed security personnel whenever and wherever they want to go as long as they conduct themselves within the legal framework of the laws of the land.
Such a peaceful arena can also come a long way in aiding civilian movements round the clock prior, during and after the elections.
It would be vividly recalled that the spread of firearms re-surfaced in communities within the country in 2019 during the fight against the global COVID-19 pandemic. Government through the Office of the President ordered that checkpoints be strategically positioned everywhere to gauge the temperatures of probable COVID-19 positive patients so that they can be isolated for cure and treatments and track records of the prevalence of the spread of the pandemic in the country.
That national approach was successfully brought to conclusion hence armed security checkpoints and mounted roadblocks are expected to be removed from public highways in the country. But as we speak and write, Sierra Leone is today highly militarized, especially after the deadly August 10th 2022 protest. And government continues to capitalize on situations of such incidents to display military might to threaten the peace of the country, an attempt and plan which must stop now. The authorities should assure the country of peace and stability, and demolish the night extortion checkpoints across the country. Night checkpoints are mounted right across Freetown and in other major municipalities manned by military and police personnel searching plying vehicles on the pretext of ensuring security and safety.
These armed police and military personnel most times forcefully extort cash from drivers and cyclists at the disadvantage of the illiterate road users. Any attempt at denying them extorting monies, reluctant drivers will be pulled over the roads and delayed until they are pleased to release them. In other words, the checkpoints are not mounted for security purposes but to put cash into the pockets of police and military personnel. Such roadblocks should therefore be removed to sanitize the roads at night, because the more checkpoints there are, the more the kush trade gets out of hands. Yet the fear tactics checkpoints keep posing serious threats to civilians on going about their normal businesses.
FORUM waits to see which developmental impact the spread of firearms and roadblocks in the name of security checkpoints will have on the economic hardship and the already stalled democratic process. Please demilitarize our roads and communities; guns in the hands of security officers everywhere in our society is an excrescence on the face of the city.