They say wonders never end in Sierra Leone, and that is so true.
The on going quarrel at the SLFA will not cease to amuse people even as the actual drama is yet to unfold.
We have said that it is a national disgrace and for this we only have to find out what is trending now in football circles all over Africa.With all our problems, we believe Sierra Leone does not need this kind of negative attention now.
What is now more disheartening, is the way the Police have decided to handle the whole issue.
We say so because there was a quarrel between a lady and a gentleman. It is a fact that the lady slapped the gentleman. It is also a fact that the gentleman did not retaliate, which makes him a gentleman indeed. But what do our honourable Police do? They invite the gentleman, question him for several hours and give him 50 million Leones bail. To crown it all it is the OSD who are investigating. To us this is an exercise in absurdity.
It lacks fair play, it lacks natural sense of justice and truly speaking the police must be ashamed of themselves.
What is alarming is the fact that this is one of the reasons, which led to the war. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report is replete with assertions about the actions of the Police and how they deny justice to the ordinary man.
The effects of the attack by the rebels and the exceptionally high number of police stations burnt down and personnel who were killed should indicate the venom with which the rebels who are Sierra Leoneans themselves sought out the Police. Their actions can only come from out of persistent cases of them being frustratingly denied their right and being blatantly treated unfairly.
This is why this trend that the Police have taken to act of late is very disturbing, because it is starting to make them lose any trust, which the public has in them. It is building up a silent attitude of defiance in the public bordering on revulsion.
This is why we urge the Police to stop and re-examine the way they have been handling public issues. When the Public loses confidence in the police then law and order becomes a problem. When law and order becomes a problem civil disobedience is around the corner.
We do not want this country to be dragged back to where we have come from. The UN Secretary General has just officially released us, from being a conflict or post conflict country. We are now no longer a fragile state.Let no one take us back.
The news from Njala campus is also not encouraging. Allegations of police beating students into a coma and tens of them being hospitalised is nothing but bad news.
This government must now move to stop the Human Rights abuses being carried out by the police. A building being set on fire is not justification enough to become official terrorists and start chasing and randomly beatingall students including female students who are simply going to pick up their bags to move out of the campus.
Where is the professionalism? Where is the discipline? Where is the constitutional mandate to protect lives and property? Where will this brutality lead us?
We believe that the Police have lost it.
May God help Sierra Leone.
Wednesday March 12, 2014