December 21, 2021
By Aruna Kamara in Bo
Some stakeholders in Bo including civil society activists have raised grave concern over the Management of the Bo West Police Traffic Division. They are accusing the Traffic Police of making several arrest including bike riders during the Christmas festivities without charging defaulters to court.
Speaking to A-Z Newspaper, Joseph Lulaba said that “we have good police officers but there are bad police officers at the Bo west Traffic Police Division who are most times not in Uniform chasing and arresting bike riders and arresting said e bikes to the police station during this Christmas festivity to extort money from the riders in the tune of hundred thousand Leones before the bike is released to the owner. ‘’
‘’ I am not against the arrest of the riders but due process of the law should be followed. If the rider has no relevant document should be charged to court. Let the rider go and pay the state a fine to serve as a deterrent to breaking the traffic law,’’ he said.
Brima Jusu, a resident of Bo said that ‘’ the Police made a lot of arrest during this festive period and the arrest was in place but my concern is , raiding of bike riders has increased in the festive season. The traffic police officers in uniform have now made raiding more intense in the festivity as a way of making money for themselves..’’
Mr. Jusu said that “I was happy over the step taken by the police regional commander, calling on the transport sector including bike riders to do their work within the ambit of the law. He added that “obtaining license and other relevant document should be the done by those in the transport sector.’’
He said that ‘’the bikes that the Bo west police traffic officers are arresting should be charged to court and the fine should go to the state and not the Police officers creating their own court in their offices to collect money from the bike riders to compromise such cases.’’
Mr.Jusu called on the The Head of the Bo West Police Traffic Management, to give account of the all the bikes arrested during the festivity and should be in position to tell the public how many bike riders charged and fined.
Some civil society activists in Bo have called on the Police Regional Commander to overhaul the management of the Bo West Police Traffic Officers, as there are some officers that are bent on denting the good image of the Police that Inspectoral General of Police is striving to overhaul.
Effort made to contact the Head of the Bo west Police Traffic Management to get his own side of the story proved futile but one of the junior officers who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that “the allegation against us is baseless and unfounded.
According to him, they will be updating the public about the nature of their operation during the festivity at the end of the year or it will be captured in their annually report that will be sent to the head of Traffic at the Sierra Leone Police headquarter.