By: Mohamed M. Sesay
During the passing outing of one thousand new police recruits at the Hastings Police Training School, the Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone who also doubles as the Chairman of the Police Council Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, has on Saturday the 25th of February 2023 gave a security assurance.
He unequivocally assured the nation that President Bio’s government would not allow any individual, group of individuals or political parties to undermine Public Order of the State as the country prepares to into the June24th, 2023 elections.
Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh called the Sierra Leone Police especially the new recruits, to uphold professionalism, commitment to hard work at the highest magnitude.
He said as the country enters into a very crucial period which is the June 24th General Elections, he urged the Sierra Leone Police to remain apolitical and support the election process by providing security and safety.
He reminded that police officers are not above the law. He therefore, used the opportunity to advise police officers to keep off from crime and corruption.
He intimated that policing in the last four years had changed in the country adding that, since President Bio took over office, they had been faced with the responsibility to address the huge welfare and operational challenges of the Sierra Leone Police Force. He urged the one thousand new recruits to continue to work very hard particularly in the event of the growing challenges.
Vice President Juldeh Jalloh also revealed that President Bio’s government has worked very hard in providing ecosystem that would enhance the optimum capacity of the Sierra Leone Police to deliver its policing responsibilities. He reiterated that when they came in as a government in 2018, the Police Force was confronted with huge challenges of rice supply to personnel including mobility capability among others. He also reminded that upon assuming governance in 2018, the Sierra Leone Police Force was faced with irregular promotion, poor salaries and welfare condition. He added that all of the aforementioned challenges affected the personnel, their morals and also the operational capability of the Sierra Leone Police Force.
As a government, Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh disclosed that they had demonstrated in moving forward in terms of providing the necessary support to the Sierra Leone Police. He educated the gathering that President Bio New Direction Government had paid all the backlogs of rice supply to the Sierra Leone Police. He said they had procured new vehicles, new motor bikes in order to help the Sierra Leone Police in their daily operations. He said they had also regularized fuel supply to support operations of the Sierra Leone Police.
Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh said President Bio’s Government had progressively increased salaries of Police Officers and other Members of the Security Sectors by 10% in 2018, and additional 10% in 2019 for grade seven- fourteen. He said even the salaries for Assistant Inspector Generals of Police had been reasonably enhanced. He also promised to do likewise for the remaining ranks of the Sierra Leone Police.
“Distinguish ladies and gentlemen, since we assumed office in 2018, we have granted automatic Sierra Leone Government Grant-In-Aid to all eligible police officers to tertiary institutions. To this end, today, we have about two hundred and forty-one police officers who are enjoying the Government Grant-In-Aid”, he said.
During the covid-19, Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh also disclosed that government paid about Le 4.2 billion monthly as risk allowance to all police officers including support staff. Since they took over governance, he said they had recruited four thousand four hundred police personnel including the new batch of one thousand police personnel. He assured that another batch of one thousand police personnel would come in for training in weeks to come. He said government is doing such in order to strengthen the police force.
He concluded with a strong worded warning that as the country prepares to go into elections, President Bio’s led government would not accept any individual, group of individuals , or political parties to undermine public order.
He said if anyone ventures to violate Public Order, such person or persons would be seriously dealt with within the good spirit of the law.
